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I was born into the slums of Ceres. That’s like winning a lottery where the jackpot is a gigantic pile of steaming shit, and then the universe says, “Here, have some more” while giving you the finger. People like me are called 'mongrels' by those who hold higher status, which is pretty much everybody else: those pleasure loving assholes in Midas, those Elite overlords lounging in splendor in Tanagura, that glittering city of the gods, or so I’m told. Eos Tower is barely visible from the garbage pit that is Ceres; the smog is so thick down here in the dumps, even at night when neon reigns. Fuck ‘em all, I say. They can keep their holier than thou status, their fancy clothes and their snobbish attitudes. At least us 'mongrels' are free. We live in filth and squalor and fight over scraps like rabid dogs, but we can still say we’re free. It’s easy to tell yourself lies when you have nothing in life except the stench of the air you breathe of your own volition, nothing to offer in trade besides your own body.I didn’t always value my freedom, or even understand what it was. There was a time when all I saw was the filth and squalor and my one and only goal was to escape it. I was such an idiot. How does that saying go? You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone? I had a gang, Bison, and with it I had compatriots I could call my family when I had no other to speak of, and I had Guy, who loved me. I loved him, too. He wasn’t just my second-in-command in Bison, he was my pairing partner, the man who popped my cherry. I was thirteen, fresh out of Guardian, and Guy was sixteen. I gave myself to him willingly, maybe even a little too eagerly. I’d had many opportunities to lose my virginity before Guy, like with that dickhead Robby, who was always getting up in my face at that shithole of an orphanage. He was so hot and bothered for a piece of ass, my ass, but I knew I was better than trash like him. Growing up in Guardian meant you learned real fast how to defend yourself with your own fists and wits or you were made to grovel, and I didn’t grovel for anyone, especially a douche like Robby. Guy didn’t ask me to grovel. He was generous and easy going. He bought me food and drink and smokes, treated me with respect even though he was bigger and older than me. The first time he kissed me, he asked me for permission. “Riki,” he said, “is it okay if I kiss you?”I laughed at him, a little drunk on the stout we were sharing. “Don’t be an idiot,” I snorted. It was all false bravado, because in the next moment my cheeks were burning something awful from my own fear and excitement. I was so relieved when he leaned in, his arms circling around my ribs, and pulled me close. The sensation of his warm lips on mine was more thrilling than I thought it would be, and then he snaked his tongue into my mouth and, holy shit, I’d never felt anything like that before. It was weird and wet and muscular and it made my cock jump in my trousers. I remember thinking, “I want him to fuck me. Am I in love?” Stupid, right?He went real slow with me. It was my first time. Guy had already been with others and I was grateful he knew what he was doing. Well, I had nothing else to compare it to, but it felt like he knew what he was doing. He took me down to his bed in the back room next to the workshop where he kept his bike. It was more of a cot with a thin futon thrown over it than a real bed with a real mattress, but we weren’t exactly living in the lap of luxury. He kissed me a lot. Even while he undressed me, he kept kissing me. I liked it; it made me want more of him. When he rubbed and licked my nipples, I started moaning. His mouth felt so hot on my skin, and then he put his mouth on my cock and sucked me down into his throat. That’s when I really started making noises, the feeling of pleasure was so intense, way better than jacking it with my hand. I came in two seconds, my nuts exploding in their sac, it was ridiculous.I was too young and inexperienced to be embarrassed about such lack of stamina, and Guy didn’t seem to mind at all that I had shot my load into his mouth without any warning. That was rude, even I knew that, but he just smiled at me and kissed my thighs. When he kissed my mouth I could taste myself on his tongue. It was really weird. I had never tasted myself before. I can’t say that I liked it, but Guy told me, “Hmm, Riki, you’re so good.” He caressed down my body, murmuring, “Do you want me, baby?” and then he led my hand to his erection, curling my fingers around its hard length, asking, “Do you want me inside you?” I immediately said, “Yes!” without even thinking, without knowing what to expect. Well, I mean, I knew he was going to put his cock inside me, but I didn’t know what it would feel like. Would it hurt? Everybody did it. I’d seen guys fucking each other in the dorms and hallways of Guardian all the time, and the guys bottoming had made the kinds of noises I’d already made with Guy, so it had to feel good…He had me roll onto my stomach and open my legs. “Here,” he said, and he put a pillow under my hips. I felt kind of stupid with my ass raised in the air like that, but when he started kissing down my spine and onto both of my ass cheeks, nipping and kneading them, I forgot all about feeling stupid. I couldn’t wait for him to just shove it up in there, but he tongued me there instead! Once I got over the shock of it, I started moaning shamelessly again as he licked at my hole, my ass cheeks held apart by his thumbs on either side digging into my flesh. He was driving me insane and, trapped beneath me against the pillow, I could feel my cock hardening again. Oh god, I was going to lose my mind if he kept doing this, so I cried out, begging into the sheets, “Guy, no more. Just fuck me!” Even though I was spread out like some limp rag doll, my thighs were literally shaking, I had so much pent up energy and frustration that needed to find release.At last, I felt him lean over and reach for something in a drawer in his night table. I heard a cap being flipped open and then his fingers at my entrance again. He rubbed something wet and slick around the rim and then pushed a finger inside me, spreading the lube deeper. I could feel the cold as more lube was squirted onto my hole and then another finger pushing inside. “Is this okay?” Guy asked.“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” It didn’t hurt at all. In fact, it felt really good and that made me even more impatient for Guy to get on with it. “Just hurry up and fuck me already,” I insisted, “I’m not going to break, for crying out loud!” Ten seconds later, I had to swallow my words. As soon as I felt Guy’s cock at my entrance, I leaned back into him, pushing my hips off the pillow to urge him in faster. I felt the head slip in at last and yeah it felt fucking great. I couldn’t understand why Guy was holding himself still instead of pounding his cock into me like I’d seen others do and it was infuriating. Didn't he want me like I wanted him? I reached behind me and grabbed at his hip, pulling him close.“Wait, Riki, don’t—”His cock penetrated just another inch, but that extra inch was enough to make every muscle in my ass spasm in protest and I screamed out because all of a sudden everything hurt. “Oh, fuck fuck fuck!!!” I keened into the darkness, my eyes screwed shut and bursts of red lighting up the backs of my lids. Now I knew, too late, why Guy was holding back and taking his sweet old time. Well, only fools rush in and I was a goddamn fool!“Just breathe, baby,” I heard Guy telling me. He folded his warm body over mine and kissed my cheek, whispered into my ear, “Just relax, Riki, you’ll be okay. It’ll feel good soon if you relax.” All I could do was nod and whimper like a child who’d been knocked down a few notches by his own greed and stupidity. I breathed, just like Guy told me to, and to my surprise, the sharp, stabbing pain slowly went away as my body unclenched. When he nudged his hips into mine again, it didn’t hurt. It didn’t feel good either, more like being uncomfortably full, especially when he finally sank his cock into me to the hilt, but then he started moving, pulling out and pushing in slowly, and each time he did it it felt better and better. “More,” I moaned, “faster.” Guy had me on my side at this point and, at my encouraging words, he began thrusting in a shallow, steady rhythm that had the cot creaking on its metal legs and me panting like an overheated dog in the summer sun. I can’t even describe what that first time felt like other than I was pretty much incoherent by the time I started jacking myself off as Guy rearranged my organs from the inside. I was out of my mind, completely lost in pure sensation and it was overwhelming. I came so hard I thought I would black out, it was so intense. Having Guy’s cock filling all the space inside me…I had never felt so whole. For the first time, I wasn’t alone in the world; I had Guy and his cock and his hands and his kisses, and when he came deep inside me and shouted out my name, “Riki! Riki!” the sound of it was enough to wash away all the filth of my life.Those two years with Guy and Bison were good. Sometimes I wonder if my memory of those days is hopelessly warped when seen through the lens of time and experience, but I like to think that the happiness I felt was real and not something imagined or distorted beyond truth in retrospect. I escaped the slums of Ceres, and in doing so I lost it all: Bison, Guy, my freedom. I lost myself, too: who and what I am, who and what I was, all of me belongs to someone else now, to my Master whom I fear and loathe and love, my Master who chains my heart and my soul, my Master who fills me with shame as much as he fills me with his cock. My Master, Iason Mink.
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On the streets I’m known as “Riki the Dark” or “Riki the Black.” Some people think I earned that moniker from my days working as a courier in the Black Market, others say it’s because of my coloring. The black of my hair and eyes is rare in Ceres, or maybe people with naturally dark hair and eyes dye them a different color to disguise the fact. It’s an undesirable trait, just my lousy luck. In Midas and Tanagura, the lighter your hair and eyes, the higher up you sit on the social totem pole. I guess that means I’m the lowest of the low. I don’t care. I don’t mind being rare, even if it’s a bad thing. I’m a black-haired, black-eyed mongrel and I’m proud of it. I like rubbing elbows with the rich citizens of Midas—me with my dark mongrel coloring that just screams, “Despise me because I’m so fucking low class!”—and seeing the disdain rise up into their faces. It gives me so much satisfaction, so much entertainment. They’re usually too busy being offended by my presence to notice that I’m picking their pockets as I pass by on the sidewalk. It’s hilarious. Petty thievery not only provides me with a means of living, it’s good exercise and I get to window shop at the same time. I can look at all the shiny shit I’ll never be able to afford, like a new bike. Whatever. I can steal what I can’t buy.It was on one such night in downtown Midas, my mind pre-occupied with fantasies of finding a way out of the cesspool of Ceres, that I ran into him. I hated him right away and for so many reasons. He had caught me pickpocketing and then decided I wasn’t even worth turning in to the police, his cold blue eyes told me how little he thought of me; I was a cockroach he wouldn’t even deign to crush under his feet lest I dirty his fancy-schmancy shoes with my spilled guts. That he stood over two meters tall made me look twice, but his appearance was even more startling than his height. I had never actually seen a Blondie in person. Tanagura’s highest ranking Elites were almost mythical creatures to us mongrels, rumored to be created by Jupiter herself and not even human like the babies incubated in artificial wombs. An Elite, much less a Blondie class, would never step foot in the slums of Ceres, and this one with his hand gripping my arm and almost crushing it like a toothpick was something I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams. His skin was eerily pale against my own ruddy complexion, and his hair was long, longer even than Guy’s and, like the name that distinguished them, as blond as could be. How could a thing so perfect and beautiful exist in the same flawed and ugly world as myself? My pride, though, my pride couldn’t stand to be tossed aside like garbage by this thing. I had grown up in Guardian, smaller than many of the other orphans and therefore a target for abuse, and I had learned to stand up for myself. Oftentimes it meant using my fists, but as many other times it meant lashing out with words. I knew I stood no chance of dominating this creature physically, so I ran my mouth. I was good at that. Very good.“Oi, asshole, th' fuck are you doing? Ain't you gonna turn me in?” I grabbed at his arm and he swatted me off like a mosquito. I paid no mind to the fact that people were staring at me as if I had grown three heads. Let them gawk, I wasn't going to back down.In a silky soft voice, he told me, “Go back to Ceres, mongrel.”Of course, he turned his back on me again, and again I grabbed his arm and this time I held on with all my might, hissing, “I don’t owe debts to anyone, least of all a Blondie.” My anger made me brave, like stupid brave, because the next thing I did was drag us both to a love hotel hidden within the Minos Bar, an open secret known to all the locals, in order to offer my body in payment. Why he didn’t hand me over to the Darkmen to be beaten to a pulp was anyone’s guess, but there was no way in hell I’d let him hold that over my head. Once we got to the place, though, he didn’t seem interested in fucking me in the ass. He was more interested in fucking my ears with his words, hurling insults at me like a monkey in a cage slinging shit. Only, he wasn’t a monkey in a cage…that was more me, I guess, and all I could do was toss the shit right back in his ridiculously dazzling face.“Do you want to do this or not? I ain’t got all night.” I sat on the edge of the bed with my chin stuck out. I can only imagine how cocky I looked. He sat across from me on a chair with his legs casually crossed, assessing me like I was bacteria under a microscope.“Is this how you assuage your shredded ego? You throw your slutty self at a stranger who is clearly way out of your league?” My jaw dropped. If another gangbanger in Ceres had said that to me, there’d be fur flying in half a second, but I had an inkling through all the red I was seeing that getting in a brawl with this freak was a bad idea. This whole encounter was a bad idea, but I couldn’t just walk out the door without humiliating myself further. The problem was, staying and finishing what I started was probably going to be just as bad as leaving.“I already told you, dumbass, I ain’t got no money, so you get to have your pervy way with me. I pay my debt and we’re done, got it?”The huge man sniffed the air. “What makes you think your scrawny body could satisfy any debt?”I jumped off the bed and shook my fists at him. I wanted to punch him in the face so bad but I punched the air instead, imagining how good it would feel to knock that smug look right off him and into space. “Yes or no, motherfucker?! Do you wanna fuck me or not?” I could feel the steam shooting out of my ears.Another sniff and then a bored sigh issued from him. He waved a gloved finger at me. “Take your clothes off and stand against the wall.”Finally! I let out a loud groan through clenched teeth and stripped naked as fast as I could. “Let’s just get this over with,” I spat at him. I stalked over to the wall and faced it, putting my hands on the peeling paint to brace myself. Even though the room was cool, I broke out in a sweat anyway; my nerves were frayed and I just wanted to go back to the garage and crawl into bed next to Guy and feel his arms around me, have him kiss me and tell me everything was going to be alright. Minutes seemed to tick by before I heard the Blondie get up from the chair and approach me. Then, he was right there, standing so close behind me I could smell him for the first time. He smelled like no other man I’d ever met. I couldn’t even put into words what he smelled like. It was probably some super expensive cologne or something, but all I could think in that moment was, “This must be what it’s like to be clean.” Then, for some crazy reason, I thought, “I wonder what he tastes like? Does he taste like Guy?”“Turn around,” I heard him say.I turned around and there he stood towering over me, still fully clothed. I had to crane my neck up and even then I was barely able to meet his cold stare. “Aaa-aren’t you going to take your clothes off?” I muttered into his chest. That’s when I noticed what he was wearing. I was used to watching the citizens and tourists of Midas strolling around in their finery, but this man’s attire was of a material and quality I’d never seen before, and as he wedged a firm leg between my thighs, I wondered what was underneath it all. I had never had sex with anyone but Guy, so my curiosity began pumping through me, along with the adrenalin and the fear and the blood rushing to my cock. Fuck.The man merely grabbed my wrists and pinned my arms over my head with one huge hand. He lowered his head and murmured right into my face in the softest, deepest purr, “Why would I need to undress in order to discipline a filthy mongrel whore such as yourself?” If it weren’t for the actual meaning of the words he was saying, I’d think he was reciting poetry, his voice was like the sweetest caress, and when he ordered, “Now moan for me like the dirty slut that you are,” and began rubbing my nipple between the thumb and forefinger of his other gloved hand, I found myself obeying his command, the noises tumbling unobstructed from my quivering lips as I rode his knee.“Ah! Ah! Ah!” I heard those sounds ringing in my ears and couldn’t believe they were coming from me even as I made them, even as I panted and squirmed in his tight grasp. He moved his fingers to my other nipple and tortured that one into a hard nub as well before bending lower and tracing the tip of his tongue along the shell of my ear, then sucking the entire lobe into his mouth. I was startled by the heat of that mouth, the hot wetness, and then the heat of his breath as he licked down my neck, sucking and nipping as I cried out despite myself. I had no idea what had come over me. Sex was always good with Guy; he always got me off, always left me satisfied, but this…this insufferable bastard was using only his mouth and fingers on my neck and nipples and I was on the edge of ecstasy. Why? How? I was being violated and shamed and I knew it and yet…yet…my body was betraying me at every turn. One more pinch of my nipple and I came, wetting my stomach and probably staining the Blondie’s exquisite clothing. I thought that would be it—I had paid my debt and could go now, slink off with my tail between my legs—but he wasn’t done playing with me apparently.“Tsk. Coming that fast is nothing to be proud of,” he chided.My face was aflame with embarrassment and wounded pride. “Let me go,” I insisted, struggling to free my arms but his knee was still lodged between my legs and I could gain no purchase, my toes barely touched the floor.He only gripped me tighter and said, “What? You expect me to let you go after such a pathetic performance?” His other hand carded through my hair and tugged painfully at the strands, jerking my head up to face him. “Have you forgotten already? You’re the one who wanted to buy my silence. Is it wrong for me to expect proper payment?”That’s when I got my first sickening glimpse into the bottomless pit of this man’s cruelty. He swiped two gloved fingers across my stomach, smearing my cooling spunk onto those long digits before reaching between my thighs and unceremoniously shoving them into my ass. He was not the least bit gentle, didn’t care at all that I was still winding down from an orgasm and was overly-sensitive to touch. No, he began probing right away, twisting and turning his hand inside me with rough movements.I screamed out, not caring that I must have sounded like I was begging, “Stop it! I’m not a toy! Gyaaah! Enough already!” He let my arms go so he could grasp my hip and hold me still and I fell to clawing at his chest and shoulders, the pain and pleasure warring inside me, raging like a hurricane in my groin, in my head, in my heart which threated to beat right out of my ribcage. He was jabbing at my prostate mercilessly, stopping whenever I began clenching down, leading me to the precipice but not letting me take that final leap. It was torture. I heard myself begging some more, “Let me come…ggghh…please…let me come!!!” I begged until I was crying hot tears of shame, over and over I begged for mercy, begged until snot was running down my chin and my voice was ragged and hoarse and then, finally, when he had deemed that I was punished sufficiently for his satisfaction, when he had torn my pride to smithereens, he let me come, pressing firmly against what he called my “bud of pleasure” which he had so expertly abused.Then his fingers were gone, his bruising hands were gone and I collapsed onto the floor, gulping in shallow breaths while my body shook and shivered. I was so wrung out in every way, I couldn’t even cry anymore. I watched him remove his gloves and throw them into the trash can; then he tossed what looked like a gold coin onto the bed, saying, “Here’s your change. For the hush money.” He walked out the door without even looking back at me, like I didn’t even exist.After all that, I didn’t even exist.________A million thanks to thesensualaristocrat for creating a beautiful piece of fan art for this chapter: Riki x IasonSince this gorgeous illustration is NSFW, you'll have to click on "view" to see it.
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He was known as “Riki the Black” on the streets of Ceres, or so I was told by Katze, my too-clever-for-his-own-good ex-Furniture (by Jupiter! I have the shittiest luck with Furniture), but to me he was always “Riki the Mouth.” The foul language that spewed incessantly from that mongrel’s piehole like sewage from an open pipe could strip paint from a wall.I liked it. A lot.In fact, his brazen potty mouth was one of his many distinguishing charms that took me by surprise and fascinated me to no end…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Allow me to go back to the beginning.Hmm…ah, yes… I was bored out of my titanium skull that night. Raoul had asked me to accompany him to Midas for some business with the Pet auctioneers in Mistral Park, business I found tiresome beyond belief. As a scientist bent on breeding the perfect Pet through gene manipulation, Raoul could literally talk my ear off about chromosomes and DNA and stem cells and whatnot, none of which interested me. Watching dust collect was more exciting than owning Pets as far as I was concerned, though I had always dutifully fulfilled my obligation as an Elite to purchase and train the best that the Academy’s Scientific Center had to offer. If I didn’t participate in Pet ownership, I’d have to face a slap on the wrist from Jupiter and, even worse, the sincere harping of Raoul, who’d been on my case ever since he’d brought Mimea into his household. She was his newest triumph of genetic tinkering and his star Pet trainee, and he was eager to breed her with another pureblood Pet, one he hoped would be owned by moi. Mais pourquoi? you ask.We Elites are sterile. I suspect in some twisted way, Raoul harbored the desire to have “children” with me (gulp) and mating his Pet with one of mine was the closest thing to achieving such a ridiculous goal. The problem was: I had sold off my last Pet months ago and was dragging my feet in finding a replacement. Truth be told, the mere sight of one of those idiot sex dolls made my artificial skin crawl with irritation. They were like a bad case of eczema on my engineered eyeballs, those brainless Pets. Furniture—Katze’s blatant violation of rules notwithstanding—are useful at least. They cook, they clean, they make the bed each morning. Pets, on the other hand, are only valuable as status symbols and for voyeuristic entertainment if you’re into that kind of kinky shit. I, for one, have yet to pop a boner while watching Pets copulate.“It’ll be the cream of the crop offered at this next auction,” Raoul told me as we walked down the main thoroughfare in downtown Midas. Mistral Park was awash in neon and mobbed with garishly dressed tourists and denizens alike. We ambled down the center of the wide boulevard, the crowds parting before us like waves at the prow of a ship. Raoul continued chattering, using that know-it-all tone that I’ve always found so endearingly laughable. “Get yourself a new Pet to your liking. You’ve been without one for too long. People are starting to talk, as if you’re some sort of common cheapskate. Now, now, I know you’re not that. You may be a complete weirdo, but you’re not cheap. I can help you select one with the right temperament. We all know how much trouble you have in judging character.” Raoul paused to shoot me a collegial smirk—he and everyone else in Eos Tower knew about what had happened with Katze—before prattling on, “I’ll make sure your next Pet is the most docile in nature.”Oh, Raoul…always offering me white chocolate when I prefer dark. So clueless.Elites such as Raoul and myself have highly tuned senses, not to mention extraordinary strength, stamina, and intelligence. Fortunately, for the sake of my friendship with Raoul in particular and my sanity in general, I had long-ago perfected the very male ability, might I even say talent, for selective hearing; otherwise, I might have strangled Raoul right there on the street. Don’t misunderstand. Raoul is my brother, my fellow Blondie, and is as decent and law-abiding as any of my other Elite peers. Raoul does everything by the book and, though his strict adherence to rules drives me up the wall, I have the utmost respect for him and his opinions. By Jupiter! does he have opinions…a plethora of opinions…That night, though, I was bored and irritated by all his nagging about acquiring a new Pet. It was true. I hadn’t kept a Pet in a while, nor did I want to saddle myself with another. The ones I had purchased before were sufficiently well-made and appropriately dim-witted and, of course, they had been Academy-bred and thus came with all the right pedigree and papers proving said pedigree. But every time I looked at them I wanted to slit my wrists, not that that would have done any good. Elites are pretty much indestructible compared to the weaklings comprising the human race. Still, Raoul was right in urging me to buy a Pet at this next auction. I had an image to maintain, a reputation. I was Jupiter’s most beloved creation, accorded the rare privilege to speak directly to her, and I knew I must not tarnish that reputation. That meant resigning myself to bringing yet another new Pet into my household.When I first saw him…well, I didn’t really see him at all. He didn’t register as Pet material; far from it. What I saw was a flash of black hair, a slender, still-adolescent body clad in shoddy black attire, and a small hand reaching out towards the open coat of an unsuspecting tourist. Zero points for style, I muttered under my breath. It was easy enough to grasp that skinny wrist and stop him in his tracks. The temptation to fling him straight up into the air and then perhaps slam him onto the concrete of the sidewalk was strong, but a glimpse of his startled expression and then the cheeky arrogance in his obsidian eyes made me reconsider for a split second.Raoul was all over the scoundrel, grabbing at his earlobe and declaring, “He has no PAM. Filthy mongrel.”Mongrel, eh? “You go on ahead,” I told Raoul. I don’t know why I said it; I had no idea what I wanted to do with this cur, but a strange voice inside me made me say, “I’ll take care of this.” Indeed. I could see the hesitation in Raoul, but he relented when I easily tossed the mongrel onto his ass. That seemed to placate my fellow Elite.“Don’t go picking up any odd scrap off the street,” Raoul admonished before he walked onward.A second and closer look at the little thief proved unimpressive. He was small, still slouching towards adulthood, although the hardened look in his eyes was old beyond his sharp-fanged youth. “Go back to Ceres,” I told him, and then I turned to catch up with Raoul, who was practically mowing down the humans with his long strides. Raoul cared little for humans beyond their use as test subjects in his lab. Imagine my surprise when the stray mutt latched onto my arm and proceeded to lecture me, the great Iason Mink, on the importance of paying off debts. Clearly, he was out of his mind, probably tripping on that cheap stout favored by the slum trash of Ceres, but what left me rather stunned was his filthy speech. It seemed as if he were speaking a foreign language, the coarseness of it was unknown to my ears.“I ain’t got no fucking fancy-ass aerocar, so we’ll have to walk,” I heard him say.Even though Ceres—Midas’ toilet for all intents and purposes—did not appear on any official maps, it was common knowledge that all children born into the slums were raised and educated at Guardian up to the age of thirteen. This boy must have 'graduated' from Guardian and I could only wonder what he had been taught during his years there. Certainly not proper Amoïese. All of Eos’ Furniture were culled from Guardian, selected from the cohort of thirteen-year-olds who would be spared the slum life, and they were all appropriately demure in their speech. So, was this just an act put on by this black-haired mongrel to offend me? Having never encountered such an anomaly—such an ill-mannered, ill-spoken piece of trash with an apparent death wish—my curiosity was piqued.And so I followed him to a love hotel. Yes. A decidedly seedy love hotel fronted by an equally seedy bar. Another first for me. This night was proving to be less and less boring. As I breathed in the dank air of the private room—the olfactory sensory neurons in my organic brain recoiling at the overwhelming odor of stale sweat, piss and cum lingering like a heady miasma of gross humanity—I couldn’t help but imagine Raoul’s look of horror should he ever discover what I was doing. It somehow made it all the more satisfying, amusing, enjoyable. Naughty. Yes, that was it: naughty. My life in Tanagura, within the antiseptic confines of Eos Tower, left little room for naughtiness. As Elites, sexual desires were to be sated through vicarious means, mainly through the observation of Pets humping at mating parties or sex soirees. Of course, that didn’t stop Elites from cavorting with each other; it wasn’t overtly sanctioned by Jupiter, but as long as sexual dalliances remained among Elites and not between Elites and humans, she looked the other way. Even Raoul, with his obsession with Pets, would never think of touching a Pet in an amorous way. That would be the ultimate debasement for an Elite.To lowly mortal humans, the immortal Elites are seen as coolly rational and indifferent to feelings, but this could not be further from the truth. Our artificial engineered bodies still house a very human brain, a brain greatly enhanced with nano technology, but human nevertheless and thus susceptible to all the emotions felt by a human: love, hate, jealousy, sadness, compassion, rage. Most Elites, however, pride themselves on keeping a tight rein on such human tendencies, tendencies that are viewed as weaknesses and no Elite would ever knowingly choose to be weak. No, dominance and control lie at the core of an Elite’s sense of self, and it was a demonstration of this dominance and control that this mongrel boy was crying out for in that crummy room in the love hotel. Not that he knew it, but a human, especially one as feral as this black-haired slumdog, needed to be put in its place in order for it to know its purpose in life.That night, I decided to show that dog who its master was.It was almost too easy. He wasn’t even a trained Pet with solid imprinting, but the way his body responded to my touch, to my voice even, was so unexpected. One would think he was made for me, crafted like a fine instrument to be played by my hands alone, and Holy Fucking Jupiter did I play him! He was so receptive, his nipples and cock standing rigidly at attention from the barest of caresses, his body thrumming with excitement and breath stuttering in his lungs, and all the while his vulgar protests tumbled from his quivering lips like a waterfall of midnight curses. I was a musician pounding at the keys of a piano, and the notes still sounded like the most beautiful melody.I left the mongrel an Aurora coin as a private joke. Inside, I was laughing, elated with what I had done. It had been so dirty, so fun!, fingering him the way I did, making him cum twice and leaving him a naked disheveled puddle on the floor while I had remained fully clothed and sheathed in dignity. I made it a point to toss my soiled gloves in the garbage can in front of his face. It wasn’t until I was back out on the street that I regretted not keeping the gloves. Yes, they were soiled, but they were soiled with his disgusting mongrel juices...and suddenly, I was overcome with a sensation of hunger. Little did I know what it would take to fill that void.
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Perhaps if Raoul hadn’t picked my brains like a vulture on carrion the next evening, I would have simply forgotten about the whole incident. But no, Raoul being Raoul, he had to know everything.“Where in Jupiter’s name did you run off to last night? I waited for an hour before I finally ordered dinner. I was starving by then!” Raoul took a sip of his wine as we sat on the sofa in his living room. He was still nursing the pain of being stood up at the très chic restaurant in Flare after our meeting in Mistral Park the evening before. “You know how I get the shakes if my blood sugar dips too low."“I am sorry,” I replied, hiding a smirk behind my own glass of wine. “I got distracted by something I saw in a shop window…a jacket in gold and violet brocade.” Jupiter created us Elites to be perfect, but that didn’t mean we weren’t capable of telling the occasional lie. Besides, I was only trying to spare Raoul’s feelings, so I felt more than justified in making shit up. And maybe I didn’t want him to know I had illicitly toyed with a mongrel.“You?” Raoul countered with disbelief. “Window shopping? Since when do you give a rat’s ass about fashion? You’re still wearing the same boots from five years ago!”“I was only thinking of you, Raoul. That jacket would look smashing on you, what with the gold and the violet, those are your colors after all and…well…there’s nothing wrong with indulging a friend once in a while, is there?” Ah, that did the trick. The sparkly eyes Raoul cast in my direction told me that all was forgiven.“You were thinking of me?” A smile split Raoul’s handsome face from ear to ear as he set about refilling both of our glasses with giddy enthusiasm. “You…you didn’t spend too much, did you?”Oh, fucking hell. Now I’d have to find a gaudy jacket in gold and violet brocade…must put Daryl to the task ASAP. I covered my lie with another lie because that’s just how lies work: once you start, it never stops. With a nonchalant wave of my silk gloved hand in the air—as if my cares were as easy to brush aside as imaginary cobwebs—I continued fibbing, “Money is no issue and I know how much you pride yourself on good taste and elegance in your wardrobe. Orphe is going to be so jealous.”“Oh, Iason,” sighed Raoul, “you are the very best Blondie in all of Tanagura.” He sipped his wine, lost in contentment for a few blissful moments before he circled back to his original point. “But surely it didn’t take all night to buy a jacket. I was at that restaurant for three hours and you never showed up. I had to sup all by my gorgeous lonely self!” “Ah, well…” I chuckled apologetically, scrambling to think of a plausible excuse, “…you know how crowded it was when—” Raoul bolted upright on the sofa if that were even possible, his posture was always flawless. I could literally see a light bulb going on over his head. “It wasn’t that unwashed mongrel, was it? Was he stalking you? Did he attack you?”“Why would you ever think…no, of course not! Don’t be ridiculous.” As brilliant as Raoul was, I couldn’t believe he was actually homing in on the truth, even if he was coming at it ass backwards.“Those slumdogs with their grubby paws need to be put down. You should have thrown that one to the Darkmen.”“Hmmm…”“Why you show mercy is beyond me.”“Are you saying I’ve become soft in my old age?”The heat of Raoul’s gaze raking up and down my body was matched by the lust in his deep voice. “Iason, my brother, there is nothing soft about you.”***It was in speaking with Daryl after returning to my rooms in Eos Tower that the germ of a plan took root in my mind. Daryl looked nothing like my ex-Furniture Katze—having silvery-blond hair to Katze’s auburn red—but like Katze he was very bright and conscientious about his duties and didn’t even bat an eyelash when I told him I needed to purchase a jacket in gold and violet brocade, the more garish the better. “It’s for Raoul,” I explained.The explanation was unnecessary since Daryl was obedient in fulfilling all my requests, but I felt I needed to say it for the sake of my own self-respect. Raoul was the only scientist I knew who enjoyed swanning about in haute couture 24/7. As Blondies, we wear a standard uniform when performing our daily tasks, a uniform that is, at its foundation, utilitarian and refined in its simplicity and quality of material. It is left to individual taste to “dress it up” as one sees fit. I prefer my outer robes and overcoats to be in pearl whites or dove greys, shades that are subtle and subdued, but Raoul doesn’t seem to know the meaning of too flashy. Still, I adore him all the same.By the time we had polished off two bottles of wine, Raoul was in my lap with his tongue down my throat. Our bodies may be engineered, but our nervous system is complex—more complex than in humans—and is highly responsive to stimuli, be it taste, touch, smell, through chemicals that are inhaled, injected, or ingested, such as wine for instance, which acts as an aphrodisiac and mood enhancer. We can feel what amounts to pleasure, although it resides more in our organic brains than in our artificial skin and muscles. Kissing is certainly enjoyable and something Raoul can’t refrain from indulging in when he’s got a bellyful of wine, and an activity I’m more than happy to engage in if it means I won’t have to reveal what I did last night.“Hmm…” he moaned, taking my hand and leading it to his crotch.I could feel he was erect beneath his robes. “My, my, what a hungry slut you are tonight,” I teased. Raoul is a big man and he acts like Mr. Serious when he’s with the other Blondies, but when he’s alone with me he turns into a wanton marshmallow. I gave his right nipple a playful pinch while I freed his cock and began stroking with my other hand. That is how it normally was between us: Raoul squirming in my lap while I got him off. Out of the thirteen Blondies who are given residence in Eos Tower, I preferred Raoul’s company the most. Yes, he could be a royal pain in the ass with his judgmental nagging, but he always meant well and he was such a glutton for my affection that I could not help but play the willing partner. I jacked him off in no time and was ready to take my leave when he stopped me from getting up from the sofa. “No. Wait.” Raoul was still a little breathless from his orgasm and he had a light sheen of sweat across his brow. He’s really quite adorable that way. He lowered himself to his knees on the floor, nudging my legs apart with his elbows while he searched under my robes for my cock. I could tell he was disappointed that I was only sporting a slight chub. The truth is, as much as I enjoy making and seeing Raoul cum for me, I feel very little desire of my own. I’ve always been this way. My peers attend the Pet sex soirees on a regular basis, but I’ve never been interested in such things. I find them to be boring, not stimulating, and no matter how my fellow Blondies criticize me for my lack of participation, I really don’t give a flying fuck.Raoul, though, was intent on blowing me that night, so I let him.“Oh, go on then, brother.” I smiled down at him and carded my fingers through his luxuriant blond hair. It has a slight wave to it, unlike my own very straight hair, and I think it’s glorious. “Have your fun.” He put me in his mouth, his green eyes locked onto my blue ones, and, yes, it was more than a little arousing. He bobbed his head slowly, my cock filling in his mouth more and more, lengthening and thickening until he was choking himself on me. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the back of the sofa, listening to the obscene gagging and slurping noises as I let my mind go blank, concentrating only on the sensation of heat and wetness as Raoul expertly fellated me. I exhaled a soft moan as Raoul began stroking up and down my shaft, his tongue curling around the crown and laving at the slit, and suddenly I saw a pair of obsidian eyes, a shock of ebony hair, a small body shuddering beneath my touch. “Holy Jupiter…”I heard Raoul make a satisfied grunt between my legs and I tightened my grip in his hair, pulling and twisting my fingers in his silky tresses as he did the same to my cock, but in my head all I could hear was the sound of that mongrel’s whimpers and curses as I took him apart, piece by filthy piece. I could smell him, too, his musky scent, a scent that screamed with pure testosterone and fury. I had never smelled such sweet perfume. It was intoxicating, and I didn’t even know it until…I came hard and fast and it took me and Raoul equally by surprise.We both tidied up in silence. Raoul’s throat was too abused for speech and I…I don’t know what I was. Confused? Fuck drunk? If only Raoul hadn’t given me the third degree about last night, this would have never happened. I wouldn’t have thought of that while getting my dick sucked. I returned to my residence on the floor above, gave Daryl my order to find and purchase a jacket that fit my vague description, and then retired to my bed after a quick shower. I was confident that, by mid-morning, Daryl would have done a thorough search and found several hideous jackets for me to choose from; he was a fine piece of Furniture, that Daryl. His competence despite his youth made me think of Katze, another fine piece of Furniture but one I was forced to part with due to the crime he had committed. He had hacked into the Eos database somehow and downloaded secrets not fit for his eyes. I was supposed to “dispose” of him, but he was too bright and talented—imagine! A Furniture clever enough to hack into Eos’s database!—and so I had garnered all my wiles to convince Jupiter to allow me to employ him in a different capacity. I sent Katze back down to the trash heap of humanity, where he works as my agent and liaison in the Black Market. Katze came from Ceres—having been recruited from Guardian freshly castrated at thirteen years of age—and after being thrown back into the muck and mire, he knew all there was to know about its slumdogs. There was one in particular that had mysteriously gotten into my head and under my skin. It was a mongrel with dark hair and dark eyes and a mouth spewing garbage, and that night I decided that I wanted to see that dog pant and drool for me once again. I wanted to hear him howl for me like he did that night.I fell asleep and dreamed of flames licking and burning my skin, I dreamed of tears shed with the most wrenching pain, and I dreamed of happiness, of joy, of something I had yet to experience.
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I first saw Riki in Guardian’s outdoor 'playground,' a square courtyard of broken concrete bordered by thorny weeds where the Ceres kids in foster care took in the pungent 'fresh air' in groups divided by age. He was in with the six-year-old boys and I was with my cohort of nine-year-olds. All the girls, a dozen at the most, were kept inside in a separate wing where they had their own enclosed arboretum with air filtered free of toxins. They were the real hot house flowers being grown in Guardian’s greenhouse, too delicate to be exposed to the foul stench outside or to us rowdy dumbass boys. We saw the girls only at mealtimes, when they were escorted along the far side of the cafeteria as we gaped and gawked at them. Even as kids, we knew that girls were as rare and valuable as diamonds; so few of them were born naturally. Boys were just worthless lumps of coal and there were a fuck ton of us. The girls would sit and eat in a small room guarded by the Mothers and Sisters while us boys would crane our necks in the communal dining area to get a glimpse of them. We’d make rude gestures in the hopes of drawing their attention, talk real loud and cocky because we were boys and capable only of stupid shit like that. Still, we got to see the girls with their long hair braided into pigtails or tied back in a ponytail or put up in a bun. Aside from the old and wrinkled Mothers and Sisters who oversaw the daily workings of the orphanage, boys in Guardian were never given the chance to speak to a girl, much less touch a girl’s hair. I could only wonder about them, these strange creatures who could have babies and pissed sitting down rather than standing up; did girls ever even take a dump?As much as I and the other boys were curious about the girls, I was even more curious about Riki.I noticed him for several reasons: he was the only one who had jet-black hair and eyes, and that day he stood off in a corner of the playground all by himself wearing a fierce scowl on his face, kicking at the weeds and acting like he had a gigantic chip on his skinny shoulders. None of the other boys went near him, his aura was so dark. I thought he was really weird and it made me feel sorry for him. “That kid is going to get his ass handed to him,” I said to my block mate Sid, “he is so asking for it.”Sure enough, ten minutes before recess ended on the first day that I saw him, one of the older boys threw a rock at him. It wasn’t a huge rock and it only thudded at Riki’s feet, but his response was to go full-on berserk. He made a beeline for the rock-thrower, his hands balled into fists, his little white teeth bared as he flung himself at the larger boy, skinny arms flailing wildly. I swear, he was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. He must have been half a head shorter than the other boy, but that didn’t stop him from launching himself like a rocket into the eight-year-old who picked the wrong sapling to piss on. I was impressed. Yeah, Riki got a split lip and a bloody nose that day, but the next day, no one threw any rocks at him.I was nine and he was six, and I knew I loved him from that moment on.What would a nine-year-old snot-nosed kid know about love? I can’t really say. I can’t put my finger on it, but I knew I wanted to know him, get close to him, put my hands on him. At night in my bed, I thought about him before I fell asleep. I didn’t want to sleep at all; I only wanted to think about him. Riki. That was his name. I found out by asking one of his block mates, a boy named Haruka. After that, I saved a portion of my lunch—a cookie or a piece of fruit, something sweet—to give to him each day.“Here,” I’d say. “You look like you could use a little extra.”At first he wouldn’t say anything back to me, not even a simple “thanks.” He’d just stare at me with those pitch-black eyes and purse his lips as he accepted my offering. After the fifth time, he finally asked, “Why are you being so nice to me?”“I dunno,” I shrugged, trying to look as cool as a nine-year-old could, which wasn’t cool at all. “I like salty things and…I figure I shouldn’t let food go to waste.”I don’t think I fooled anyone with that lame ass excuse, least of all Riki, but the truth that was as plain as the nose on my face was that I liked him more than I could even understand. I liked that he was wary and prickly, that he wasn’t afraid of the bigger boys, which was pretty much everyone. He was small and thin and…it made me want to protect him. I was tall and lanky for my age, what the Mothers and Sisters called an 'early bloomer.' The other boys liked me because I was outgoing, cheerful. That all came naturally to me. It took no effort to be easy to get along with, but I could tell that Riki wanted to be his own person, someone who answered to nobody. Why was he so far ahead of us, I wondered with no little awe, that he could stand on his own two feet already and walk his own path? Bribing Riki with food worked, because he warmed up to me afterwards. He was so skinny and he liked sweet things and nothing made me happier than to see him wolfing down the piece of cake I had saved him. When I started sneaking into his dormitory at night, he didn’t push me away. He would giggle instead, and then lift the thin blanket and I would snuggle in beside him and hold him to my chest. We were just boys, but I loved him, and holding his small, shivering body to me until he relaxed into sleep was better than anything I could imagine. I would kiss him then, when he was asleep, an innocent kiss to his hair and his cheek and whisper, “Riki, I love you. I’ll never leave you. We’ll always be together.”I knew he had admirers. Even though he was young and scrawny, he had such strange charisma. He was the only boy at Guardian who had such dark hair and eyes and, yeah, that set him apart for sure, but it was more than that. Riki had a fire behind those eyes, a fire that burned and scorched and raged and everyone who saw those eyes thought twice before getting on his bad side after that fight in the playground. With me, though, he was happy, welcoming, unguarded, and after three years of sneaking into his bed at night, I knew I would wait for him. No matter what, I would wait for him and make him mine.I wasn’t smart enough or beautiful enough to be 'groomed' for jobs that might have potential for moving one up in the world, but I was good at tinkering with stuff, taking things apart and putting them back together again, so I was put in classes where we were taught how to fix mechanical things, things like aero cars and bikes. I liked it. It made me feel useful. It gave me the illusion that I had a future. And then I turned thirteen and I was shown the front gates.“Good luck. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”The prospect of being booted out into the real world didn’t scare me. It was the fate shared by most of the orphans that survived Guardian. No, I wasn’t afraid of life outside of Guardian; I was afraid of leaving Riki behind. He’d be there for another three years while I was on the outside, and I wouldn’t be able to protect him. Not that he couldn’t protect himself at that point, but I was the one he let hold his hand and fuck it all to hell if I was going to let anyone else touch him. I had no choice, of course, but to wait and hope that he would make it out of there still remembering me. Meanwhile, I passed the time hanging out with my fellow block mates who had 'graduated' from Guardian alongside me: Luke, Sid, and Norris. We trolled the boulevards of Midas at night stealing what we could in order to survive, and fighting other mongrels who tried to steal from us in turn. There was nothing organized about it; it was just a bunch of young punks fending for themselves amongst a rabble of other losers in Ceres.The days went by in a blur. I was lonely for affection. I’d never even tried to have sex with Riki when I was at Guardian, never even kissed him on the mouth though I had wanted to. He was so young, even if he was tough beyond his years, and I wanted him to keep a part of his innocence intact and untouched until he was ready to give it all up to me. I knew other boys were 'doing it' at Guardian, but Riki wasn’t one of them. Riki was special. Once I got out, I hooked up here and there for basic mindless fucking—one-night-stands were easy and plentiful in the slums where everyone was male and horny as shit—but in my heart I was saving myself for Riki. Just Riki and no one else. It never occurred to me that we wouldn’t pair up eventually. Though I had left Riki a virgin at Guardian, we hadn’t hidden our friendship either while we were there. Everyone knew we were 'together.' We found that out the hard way when the Mothers moved me to a dormitory in a different wing after discovering that I was spending practically every night in his bed. “I swear I’m not fucking him!” I protested. But then I 'graduated' a month later and that was the end of that. Not having him in my arms at night was something I would have to live with for the next three years. “Will you wait for me?” I asked as we stood at the gates saying our goodbyes. My heart was in my throat but I wasn’t about to start bawling my eyes out in front of the other guys.“Yeah, I’ll wait for you,” Riki said. Then he stood on his toes and hugged me tight, mumbling into my shoulder, “Don’t forget about me, Guy.” He wasn’t quite ten yet and his face was still a little babyish, but his eyes…his eyes told a different story when I smiled into them. There was so much determination and strength in those black orbs, I could do nothing but believe in him. “When you get out,” I told him, “it’s gonna be you and me, Riki. Forever.”
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You’d think I’d jump Riki’s bones the second we met up again, right? Well, first I’d want to get down on one knee and ask him to be my pairing partner, and then we’d bang. Me taking Riki’s virginity is what would seal the deal for us. That’s how I envisioned it—our long-awaited, magical reunion—but even the best laid plans can go awry, and I hadn’t actually planned anything beyond daydreaming about that moment. What I did have under my belt was three years of sleeping around and learning the ins and outs of sex. I wasn’t as horny as Luke or Sid, who were out cruising almost every night for fresh meat, but I was probably looser than Norris, who hadn’t paired up exactly but had found himself a musclebound mechanic twice his age to treat him nice. Maxi was the name of his wannabe sugar daddy and even though Norris wasn’t ready to settle down yet, Maxi was willing to wait for that commitment. He was older and had the patience that came with age. That’s what I would be to Riki, I told myself: the older and more patient partner, the one who would have his back.So, yeah, I ran around, sowed my wild oats. A man should know what to do in the sack, it was only expected and a matter of pride. I never once forgot about Riki, he was always front and center in my mind and heart, but one of my fuck buddies—a guy named Matt—became a regular, twice-a-week roll in the hay. Matt was my own age, but I didn’t know him from Guardian. He hadn’t gone through Guardian at all because he wasn’t from Ceres. He was from an off-world colony and had been visiting Midas with his parents on a three-week vacation Visa. On the second day, his parents were mugged and stabbed, probably by a gang of mongrels from Ceres, ironically, and their money and identification were stolen. For those with money, citizenship, and proper IDs, Midas was the ultimate playground, but for those with no money, citizenship, or official IDs, Midas was hell and Matt found himself trapped.He was playing video games at the arcade next door to the casino while his parents were at the gambling tables. There was a loud ruckus in the street but Matt finished his game before bothering to go outside to see what the fuss was all about, only to find his parents lying on the pavement bleeding and dead. Midas security showed up, but with all their identification stolen, there was no way for Matt to prove who his parents were or even that he was their son. He bolted in a panic; he had no other living relatives to call for help and he was afraid he would be deported to some godforsaken detention center or sent to a slave labor camp or worse. That’s what he told me when I first met him. Matt was very good-looking, with blond hair and blue eyes and refined features. He didn’t look like a slumdog at all, and he had a tattoo on the back of his neck with letters I couldn’t read. It was some kind of foreign script, so I had no reason to doubt his story about being from elsewhere. He told me he fled to Ceres after his parents were killed—one didn’t need any identification papers to stay in the slums—and had been living off the kindness of strangers for months, relying on food and shelter provided by various lovers, of which he had many, not surprisingly. What did surprise me was when Matt got it into his head that we should pair up for good. Why me? We had been seeing each other regularly for almost half a year and he knew I was waiting for someone—I never lied to him—but for some crazy reason he thought that someone could be him. When Riki was finally due to leave Guardian and come back into my life, I knew I had to get rid of Matt. I wasn’t about to try anything with Riki if Matt was hanging over my head. A lot of guys are okay with that sort of thing—just fucking around all over the place, sniffing at anyone’s crotch, getting their rocks off with no mind to settling down—but I knew what I wanted and I wanted Riki. I tried to let Matt down easy. With Riki’s thirteenth birthday coming in a week, I invited Matt for drinks at one of the local dive bars. “Listen, Matt, I won’t be seeing you anymore.” I took a big gulp of the cheap stout to give myself courage. “It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on, you know what I’m saying?”Matt took an even bigger swig out of his bottle of stout, his face scrunched up like he was trying to solve a complicated math problem. “No,” he replied after a long pause, “I don’t know what you’re saying. We got a good thing going.” His blown pupils and red face told me the stout was kicking in. He was pale-skinned and his cheeks always flushed when he was tripping. He leaned in close, bumping shoulders with me. “Hey, Guy, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?”“Matty,” I replied, my patience wearing thin even though the room was getting fuzzy around the edges and my resolve was softening, “we’ve been riding a bike that never had wheels to begin with.” My attempt at levity flew like a lead balloon and things went downhill from there. First he cried, hoping for some pity, then he shouted, looking for a fist fight, then he threatened, refusing to be scorned without consequence.“Who is he?” Matt hissed, his words slurred and spit flying. “What’s he got that I don’t? Is he prettier than me? You telling me he can suck your dick better than I can?” At that, he climbed into my lap in the booth we were sitting in, his voice dropping an octave lower. “You telling me he can take your cock better than I can?” Then he started grinding on my junk and purring, “You know you can give it to me hard, make me swallow you up inside me, make me scream and cum for you. You going to throw all that away? We’re so good together, Guy, aren’t we? How about it, for old time’s sake?”One more time, I thought to myself. Just one more time and then we’re done.Big fucking mistake.The same day me and the boys met Riki outside the gates of Guardian to take him home to the slums, I caught Matt stalking me. He was standing on the opposite street corner smoking a cigarette and glaring daggers in my direction. “Hey, you guys go on ahead,” I said, trying my best to sound casual. “I wanna run a few errands…you know, pick up a few things to celebrate Riki’s graduation.” Luke, Sid and Norris all assumed I meant I’d hit up a few dealers for some contraband smokes and they were all for it, whooping and hollering and fist-bumping as they got on their bikes. The pure joy on Riki’s face made my heart stop in my chest. He was taller now, a little more filled out and, holy hell, he was so fucking beautiful. I wanted so bad to kiss him, but Matt would have seen and I knew he would totally flip his shit. I had to make sure Riki never knew about him. “Go on, Riki. I won’t be long.” As soon as they all left, I ran across the street, the anger boiling inside me.“What are you doing, Matty?” I didn’t even try to hide my fury. “I told you I didn’t want to see you no more. It was supposed to be one and done! Remember? You promised me!” “Is that him?” he asked, ignoring everything I said and pointing his finger at Riki as he sped off on the back of Sid’s bike. The look in Matt’s eyes told me that he was as pissed as I was. “Is that the one you’ve been waiting for? Your special someone? You’re throwing me over for that black-haired runt?” That almost made me laugh because Matt wasn’t any taller than Riki, but his next words turned my blood to ice. “I’m going to kill that little punk. I’m going to cut off his dick and then I’m going to chew it up and spit it out in your fucking—”I punched Matt in the face. When he didn’t go down right away, I punched him again. He went down that time, so I kicked him, stomped my boots into his guts until he was spitting blood and curled up into a ball of agony. He was begging me to stop, making noise that would draw attention, so I dragged him into an alley and continued to punch and kick him until he was silent; his face looked like a slab of raw meat. Then I walked around the block searching, searching until I found what I was looking for. I picked up the empty bottle of stout, smashed it onto the concrete, and made my way back to Matt. He was still lying on the ground, groaning and incoherent. I grabbed each of his arms and slashed his wrists with the broken bottle. Then I slashed his neck and slammed his head into the pavement until he was unconscious.“Nighty-night, Matty. Have a good long sleep.”I walked back to my bike feeling light as a feather. My hands were shaking, but I was floating on a cloud. I was free of that ball and chain and now I could make Riki mine. I rode almost all the way to our hangout before I remembered I was supposed to pick up smokes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I groaned as I cut a sharp one-eighty and made my way to the block where all the dealers peddled their wares. I was hoping to score some Black Moons—an illegal type of cigarette laced with the sweetest narcotic and only available on the Black Market—but no one had any of the good stuff. I settled for the next best thing, a dime bag of weed and a decent bottle of stout, figuring it was better than nothing.“What the fuck took you so long?” grumbled Luke when I walked in the door an hour and a half later. The guys had already started drinking the usual cheap stuff and were well on their way to getting toasted. “Stop off for a blowjob or something?”“Nah,” I said, throwing the small plastic bag of buds onto the table by the couch. “I asked all over for the good stuff, but no one was dealing.” I sat down next to Riki on the sofa and took the cheap stout out of his hand, exchanging it with the bottle of good stout. “Here, Riki, welcome home.”“Thanks.” Riki’s voice was a lot lower than what it had been three years ago. His cheeks were still smooth, but he had definitely hit puberty, that was for sure. “What happened to your hands?”“Huh?” I looked down and saw that my knuckles were all bloodied; there was blood on my shirt and jacket, too. I flexed my hands and all the aches and pains finally registered. The adrenalin must have worn off…I remembered I had killed somebody. It wasn’t the first time. The law of the slums was kill or be killed. Killing for self-defense was accepted, respected, and that is what I had done. Matt had threatened me; even worse, he had threatened Riki, and I could not have that. He got what he deserved. My conscience was clear, so it was easy to lie. “Oh, yeah, that…I ran into a bunch of those Hyper Kids from Jeeks. I had to put a few of them down.” Riki’s eyes flared open. “Hyper Kids? Jeeks?”He wanted to hear everything about the teenage slumdogs that were running wild in Ceres, the gangs that were forming and fighting to stake their claim on territory. That’s when I saw it again, that fire in Riki’s eyes. “Why don’t we form a gang, too?” he asked. By then, he was off the ratty sofa and stalking around the room, thirteen years old and already grasping the reins. “We need a name if we’re gonna be a gang,” he said, as if us being a gang was a done deal.We all chimed in, calling out all sorts of dumb shit and agreeing on nothing, yipping and yapping like a bunch of wolves howling at the full moon. Finally, Norris had an idea. He disappeared into another room—our hangout was an abandoned building which used to serve as an old career placement center back when jobs still existed in Ceres—and then returned with something blocky. It was a dictionary in print.“Holy shit!” exclaimed Luke. “How old is that thing? It must be fucking prehistoric.”Prehistoric or not, it served its function. Norris plunked it down onto the table and said, “Who wants to do the honors?”“I’ll do it,” Riki said. There was no hesitation in his voice.Sid laughed and clapped Riki on the back. “Yeah, let the ‘graduate’ pick the name.” With that, Riki flipped the dictionary open to a random page and, eyes closed, set his finger down. He opened his eyes and read aloud the word underneath his finger. “Bison.”Bison it was. And Riki became our leader that night. It wasn’t like we took a vote or anything formal like that, but we were mongrels and all slumdogs recognize an alpha and naturally fall in line. For three years, Luke, Sid, Norris and I had just fucked around without purpose, living hand to mouth and not thinking beyond our noses, but with Riki in our midst, everything snapped into focus. He was our compass pointing us true north. He would lead us onward and upward and out of this stinking shithole. We were filled with hope and excitement and got completely wasted on weed and stout, so wasted it took two days to come down from our high, and another two days to recover from coming down. It took me another two days to steal enough cash cards to buy Riki a nice dinner at a decent bar. By then, I was over the nightmares I had been having about Matt. Matt who? There was only Riki.So it was almost a week after he left Guardian that I finally made a move on Riki. It was painful to wait so long, but I had already waited the three years since I had graduated, and the three years prior in Guardian, too. Six years and six days. An eternity, but it was worth every single second, because when he let me kiss him, let me make love to him, I knew it would be me and him forever.
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After that humiliating SNAFU in the love hotel, I avoided Midas like the plague for a few weeks. The thought of crossing paths with that blond freak left my insides twisted into a knot of anxiety. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing his unnaturally blue ones staring back at me and making me feel like I was nothing more than a piece of shit stuck on the bottom of his shoe. I wanted to rip his fucking head off! And then I’d remember my own actions that night—running my mouth like an idiot, provoking him in that room, making those embarrassing noises—and I’d want to punch myself in the face so I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. I couldn’t stand it, my pride couldn’t take it, so I spent my days kicking ass all over Ceres.“Riki’s on a fucking rampage!” I heard people say behind my back. “He’s gone berserk!”The boys in my own gang were saying it to my face—with admiration, of course—and I gobbled it all up and used it as fuel for more ass-whooping, carving out new territory for Bison and putting down any mongrel who stood in my way, as if all that tough guy posturing could cover up my secret shame. What that Blondie had done to me…he’d cut off my balls and I needed to regrow a new pair of brass ones so bad. Going ape shit on everyone was the only way I knew how to salvage my pride—my pride which he had finger-fucked into oblivion!—and getting bombed on stout was the only way to make me forget what had happened that night for a few hazed out hours.Tripping on stout also enabled me to tolerate Guy’s touch after that Blondie had enjoyed his high and mighty way with me. Ever since my first time with Guy, I’ve always let him take the lead in intimacy. In public, I was the head of Bison, but in private, Guy was the man in charge of my body and I liked it that way. He always had my back in a fight with other gangbangers, was always there for me to lean on through thick and thin. He would die for me and I trusted him completely; giving myself to him in bed was my way of paying him back for his love and loyalty and I considered it a fair trade. If he was in the mood, then we did it, end of story. If I wasn’t in the mood, I kept my mouth shut, probably the only time I ever kept my mouth shut. I wouldn’t have compromised or acquiesced for anyone but Guy; that’s how it was between me and him: we were pairing partners in word and deed. But after my run-in with that Blondie, I just couldn’t stomach the idea of sex, even with Guy, who was always good to me in bed. That part didn’t change; Guy was the same as ever—patient, considerate—even when I started telling him I was too hung over or too sore from a fight, he would kiss me and be content with me jacking him off or blowing him. Sometimes he’d rub one out next to me while I pretended to sleep. I don’t know if he actually believed I was asleep, but he never complained. He’d just cum on me and then clean me up and whisper, “I love you, Riki.” He always said that and I knew he meant it even if I wasn’t returning his affection like I used to. When I finally came around to letting him fuck me again, it didn’t feel the same. I don’t know how to explain it. I knew it was all in my head; I knew it shouldn’t feel any different once we got down to it, sex was sex, but it did. What used to feel so good, so right, so enough…it felt…like it was from afar and muted, like it wasn’t enough at all, like my body wasn’t mine anymore. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. I kept hearing the sound of his voice—that supremely conceited voice saying the most demeaning things in the softest, silkiest tone—and smelling his clean, pure, masculine scent. Each time Guy touched me, I wanted to scream, “No, not that way!” And I would remember the way the Blondie had touched me instead…and wish that Guy would do it like him.It drove me insane, the memory of that night, it made me want to tear off my own skin and crawl into another body altogether just to get away from myself. My head was so fucked up and I didn’t know how to un-fuck it. I was so stupid, I had been such a fool to think I could give myself to that Blondie to pay my debt and then walk away like nothing happened. I’d never been with anyone but Guy. Most mongrels would fuck anything that moved if they weren’t paired up, but I had waited for Guy and knew only his touch. Even so, I thought I could be like the others. I thought I could have sex with someone and let it be meaningless. I didn’t know anything! I hated my life like never before, this joke of an existence in Ceres where every day was just one pointless exercise in bullshit and every night was proof of my own pathetic infidelity.“Guy, don’t you want to get out of this hell hole?”We were lying in bed, our bellies full because we had managed to steal more cash cards than usual that evening. Our go-to fence, Zach, had given us a good exchange rate, so we blew most of the money on a meal and drinks before hitting a club for some dancing and cruising. Well, Sid and Luke were on the hunt. Me and Guy and Norris and Maxi danced our asses off. At four in the morning we called it a night and went home. Guy wanted to play hide-the-sausage, of course, and I guess I did too because he went at me rougher than usual—maybe he was fed up with the way I’d been so reluctant in bed lately; I couldn’t blame him—and it felt good. When he grabbed my wrists and pinned me down, something he wasn’t in the habit of doing, I finally felt a wave of desire roll through me.“Fuck, yeah,” I moaned underneath him. “Guy…fuck me…harder! Harder!” We were both pretty wasted and even though he was normally careful with me, he did like I asked him to and, yeah, he gave me a good pounding and all it took was ten tugs on my cock for me to shoot my load. For a few moments, I didn’t have a care in the world. The trouble was the euphoria didn’t last all that long. As I came down from my high, reality sank its teeth into me once more and settled back into my gut. I lit up a cigarette and grumbled, “If I don’t leave this place, I’m gonna rot from the inside out. We’re both gonna be old with nothing to show for if we don’t do something about it. I can’t go on living like this. I have to get out of here. We have to get out of here.”The look of confusion on Guy’s face told me he didn’t feel the same way. Or maybe it wasn’t confusion. Maybe it was concern instead. There were plenty of slumdogs who had tried to make their way out of the filth only to come crawling back to Ceres, defeated and ostracized by their own kind. Nobody wanted to be reminded of how low things could go, so most didn’t bother to raise their heads from the primordial slime at all. Why embarrass yourself? Trash was trash; no matter how you packaged it, it still stank.“I suppose,” Guy finally said, the smile on his lips clashing with the sadness in his grey eyes, “if anyone were to find a way out, it’d be you, Riki. Just don’t leave me behind.”***On a Wednesday afternoon a week later, I found myself on a wild goose chase. The night Zach had fenced our stolen cash cards, he had also given me a tip on a possible courier job. Some acquaintance of his was supposedly looking for an extra hand and was willing to pay well. If the lead had come from anyone else, I would have blown it off as too suspicious. No one legit and in their right mind would knowingly hire a mongrel from Ceres, but Zach had a reputation as a straight shooter.“The job is likely to be on the risky side,” he reasoned.It seemed to make sense to me at the time. Dangerous jobs usually pulled in people with nothing to lose, and that was me in a nutshell. I was desperate to make some money and buy my way out of Ceres and I had to start somewhere. Gangbanging all day and drinking all night wasn’t going to move me forward, so I had taken the business card Zach had handed to me and slipped it into my back pocket. The guys were waiting for me around the corner and I didn’t make mention of it. I figured if Zach wanted to pass the lead on to anyone else, he could do it himself.There was a date and a time and what looked to be an address written on the back of the card: WED 15:30 MOGA-E-[R+B] 805 (#07291). I couldn’t make head or tails of the ‘address’ and ended up spending a whole day at a public computer terminal in a coffee shop searching through all the Midas street maps and business directories online. If only I had bothered to look at the card when Zach had given it to me, I could have saved myself a shitload of aggravation, but I sure as fuck wasn’t going to go shuffling back to Zach and admit I was a dumbass. Luckily, I knew that Moga was a ward in Midas. I guess all those nights of prowling the streets lifting wallets came in handy in more ways than one. Eventually, through a process of elimination and constant swearing and too much caffeine, I narrowed it down to a high-rise building that seemed to house an ‘escort club.’ Great. Just my luck.Well, if I was to be some kind of stripper/hooker slipping illicit goods (drugs, likely) to some middleman, then I might as well walk in the front door like I belonged there. To my surprise, no one stopped me. I waltzed right through the main lobby to the bank of elevators without being patted down by security or being tossed out on my ass like I expected. What the fuck? I punched the button for the eighth floor and headed for room #805 when I exited. At the door was a keypad and I tapped in the numbers 0-7-2-9-1. There was a beep and the light above the keypad turned from red to green. I let myself in.A man was sitting behind a desk—he looked to be around ten years older than me and was dressed in a fancy suit—with auburn red hair which he let fall to one side of his face. He offered no greeting; just a no-nonsense, “Name?”Okay, so that’s how it was going to be. “Riki,” I replied just as succinctly.“Age?”“Almost sixteen.”That seemed to satisfy some kind of requirement, because he beckoned me to a chair in front of his desk. I sat down and glanced around at the large, almost empty office, before letting my eyes rest on the scar running along the left side of his face. So that’s why he keeps his hair longish in front. He introduced himself as Katze. Just Katze. It wasn’t unusual for people to go by one name in Ceres. Slumdogs were raised in the orphanage and didn’t know their parents, so going by just your given name was common; we simply didn’t know our family names. But I was sitting in an office in Midas and this Katze fellow looked to be successful and well-groomed, but for the scar. A man like him could afford to have that scar removed, but I kept my curiosity in check and listened to him tell me what the ‘job’ entailed. By the time I left that office I felt my luck changing for the better. He had hired me to work for him as a courier, just as Zach had said the job would be, and this Katze didn’t even mind that I was a mongrel from Ceres. I would be working for him—in the Black Market, no less—starting from the bottom. That didn’t put me off. I mean, shit, I was already at rock bottom, so I figured I could only go up from there, and up is where I wanted to go. I made up my mind to work my ass off. I would do my job, prove my worth, and take Guy with me to a better place.“Guy,” I laughed to myself as I made my way back to the slums. “You’re gonna be so proud of me.” I didn’t plan on telling Guy that I had landed a paying job. No. I would work hard and save up and then, when I had racked up enough money, I would surprise him. “I told you, didn’t I?” That’s what I would say to him when the time came. “I told you I’d get us out of here.” All those nights in Guardian when Guy had come to my bed and kept me warm…it was the memory of those times that got me through all the misery of the three years without him, when each of my block mates, one by one, died or just…disappeared. It was Guy and the love he showed me from day one that kept me going. I owed him and I always pay my debts.
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I was partnered up with this older guy named Alec. I figured that Katze didn’t trust a mongrel like me to do my job without supervision, but then I understood the ‘why’ of it when I began making deliveries to off-world colonies. I had never been outside of Ceres or Midas, much less beyond the planet of Amoï, and Alec was a seasoned pilot. He was always in the driver’s seat whenever Katze had us ship something far, but he taught me how to read a control panel, how to navigate, how to override the default codes if need be. It felt good to actually learn how to do something useful for once. I can’t tell you how many times I wished Guy were with me. This sort of thing was right up his alley; he fixed small engines and mechanical devices to make cash whenever he could but, shit, he’d cream his pants if he ever had the chance to tinker on an interstellar jet. On longer flights, I’d sit back and daydream about Guy steering us through space to somewhere far away, maybe even straight into the sun where we’d burn up in a glorious ball of fire. These self-indulgent fantasies would always end up with that Blondie’s face appearing out of nowhere, though; maybe it was that thick long golden hair of his…so fucking irritating! I couldn’t even enjoy a vision of my own death without that Elite douchebag spoiling it for me.Unlike Guy or that jerk-off Blondie, Alec was a big talker. I guess for him it helped pass the time, but sometimes I wished he’d cut the incessant chatter. Then I would remember that Katze had told me to keep my mouth shut and my ears open, so I’d make myself listen to all of Alec’s stories about the myriad places he had visited and the various species he had fucked and all I could think was, “Is this how people get when they’re old, constantly reminiscing about this and that shit?” Still, he was decent enough towards me. The other guys in the warehouse who made it a point to provoke me would back down if Alec was around. When he hired me, Katze had warned me that if I got in to fights, he’d fire my ass, and even though it stung my pride to let Alec stand up for me, I was grateful. I needed this job and I knew Katze was giving me the shortest length of rope to hang myself.Too much talking aside, Alec’s only other quirk was that he always wore dark glasses. Th’ fuck was up with that? It wasn’t until we’d been on who-knows-how-many delivery runs that Alec and I started going out for drinks at the end of a work week just to blow off some steam. We were at a bar on the outskirts of Midas after returning from an interstellar run when I finally asked him, “Alec, what’s with the dark glasses? Are you wasted all the time or something?” I had a few drinks in me already and I was in a snarky mood, and if Alec had figured out a way to fly a delivery cruiser while bombed, then I wanted in on the secret.Alec just grinned at me. “You grew up in Ceres, am I right?”“Yeah. Got a problem with that?”“Nah. No problem. But you mongrels sure like barking up the wrong tree, don’t ya?”“What’s that supposed to mean?” I slugged down the rest of my stout and ordered another round from the bartender. “For the old man, too,” I said. I was feeling generous. When we had arrived back at the docking station, I had logged in our hours and I knew that the money for our completed mission would be in our bank accounts almost instantaneously. It was weird to have enough money to buy things, indulgent things, but it was money I had earned legitimately, even if it was as a courier in the Black Market. I had completed the work and done it honestly and so had Alec. “I’m just making an observation, Riki,” Alec told me. “There’s no crime in that.”“Quit changing the subject.” I lit a cigarette and Alec did the same. “C’mon, what’s with the dark glasses? If you’re not high…you cross-eyed or something? Shit! Is that it?” I laughed at the image in my mind of Alec looking like an utter…Alec removed his dark glasses and I stopped laughing real quick. I had never seen anyone with eyes like that. They were cat eyes, I kid you not! And I was freaked out! “Ho-ly shit!” I had no idea Alec wasn’t from this neck of the woods, his speech and accent…they sounded so local to my ears. It was then that I realized just how little I knew about everything, how small my own world had been.“Yeah,” Alec chuckled, “most people react the same way. That’s why I wear the dark glasses. Happy now?” I took a long swig of stout as soon as the bartender passed me a new bottle. I felt like a total dumbass, not because I had never rubbed shoulders with other species—off-world tourists were a common sight in Midas—but because I knew that Alec and his people were known for a certain skill. “You a mind reader?” Fucking hell, I couldn’t even count the number of times I had called Alec all sorts of choice names in my head for whatever idiotic reasons.“Not quite.” Alec drank from his own bottle, his dark glasses back on to my relief. “My kind are highly intuitive. We have sort of a…sixth sense. We can pick up clues, signals, whatnot. It’s all just…a matter of awareness. But you know how it is. People are afraid of anything different.”A long moment of awkward silence passed between us. I wasn’t sure if he was just pretending to be nice or if he really couldn’t read my mind; the fact that he didn’t seem too upset with me made me think he was being sincere. I let the stout wash away my paranoia. So, Alec was different and it actually made me feel a little better about myself. I was different, too, with my dark hair and dark eyes. I had always stood out, not just in my looks and not in a good way. Unlike Alec, though, I couldn’t hide my uniquely crap personality behind a pair of dark glasses. In Ceres, my anti-social belligerence was respected—it might even be considered a twisted form of charisma—but everywhere else I was nothing more than an unapologetic bastard. “What’s that?” Alec asked.“Huh?”“That thing in your hand…what is it?”I didn’t even know I had anything in my hand, but when I glanced down, there it was: the gold coin. I must have reached into my pocket and started playing with it like I often did when I wasn’t quite in the moment. The gold coin that the Blondie had tossed onto the bed that horrible night…I had kept it even though every cell in my body had screamed, “Throw it away!” And whenever I was nervous or needed a distraction, I would take it out of my pocket and flip it through my fingers. I don’t know why I did that; maybe it made me believe I was rich. It was so stupid, but Alec had noticed me playing with the coin and he seemed to be super interested in it.“Let me see that thing,” Alec said.I handed it over to him, thinking nothing of it until his expression changed from one of curiosity to one of utter astonishment. “Holy shit! Where did you get this?” he asked. I was more than taken aback by his reaction, then suspicious. Did he think I had stolen something of worth, maybe from some rich citizen of Midas? “I found it, okay. I didn’t steal it!” I said defensively.“No fucking way!” he replied, staring at the coin in his hand. “Do you know what this is?” “Th’ fuck?” Shit, what was it? Illegal currency? Was it counterfeit? Would I be arrested for being in possession of such a thing? “I swear, I didn’t steal it!” Alec held the shiny disc in front of my face as if it were proof of some crime I had committed. “This is an Aurora coin.”“What the fuck is that?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.“Are you sure you grew up here? Dang. This is Pet currency. You know what a Pet is, don’t you?”Well…yeah. Everyone had heard of Pets, even if one never had the pleasure of owning and fucking one. Pets were creatures bred specifically to serve as living, breathing sex dolls—as opposed to the mechanical sex droids designed for those with a tech fetish—and they were auctioned off at Mistral Park. People would come from all over the place to gawk at these genetically perfected creatures. They were kept as slaves by their masters for the sole purpose of debasing themselves in every way imaginable, and the most expensive high-end Pets were purchased by the Elite of Tanagura. No one else could afford those Pets, ones that were bred by the Academy. The Pets that were thrown away by the Elites when they tired of them were then sold off to the Midas brothels, where the wealthy citizens could buy their sexual services by the hour.The mongrels in Ceres were positioned at the bottom of the garbage pile, but even a mongrel counted himself fortunate because being a Pet was worse than anything in the whole fucking world! Even if a mongrel was spat upon and possessed no human rights whatsoever, at least he was free to live his life as he chose. A Pet had no choice, no freedom, and to a mongrel, that was worse than death. The fact that I had been given an Aurora coin—a Pet coin!—was like being branded the lowest scum of the planet. That fucking Blondie! If I had hated him before, I hated him a million times worse now. What Alec told me next only made my blood boil hotter.“These coins, they have no real monetary value, but they would bring you a pretty penny on the Black Market. And this one…” Alec pointed at a stylized symbol on one side of the coin, “only Pets owned by the Blondies are given these coins. They’re highly collectible. Say…how did you come by one?”“I found it in the gutter,” I lied. Shit, shit, shit! When Alec handed the coin back to me, I stuffed it into my pocket, my stomach churning with fury and shame. You’d think I would have thrown it straight into the trash, right? But I didn’t. All I saw in front of me was that disgusting pervert, his blue eyes drilling a hole straight through my pride, his scent and fingers filling my body, his breath hot against my bare skin. I couldn’t let it go, the coin, because that coin held the memory of that Blondie and the things he had done to me, it told me that it had really happened, I hadn’t imagined it or dreamt it. I had lived it. It wasn’t until later that I realized…I wanted to live it again, and again and again, until my entire world was nothing but the pain and pleasure he had shown me in all his terrible golden glory.I guess, even as far back as that moment, I knew I had betrayed Guy. I had done a shitty thing that night with that Blondie, but I couldn’t admit the truth of it. So I told myself that the Blondie was some sick deviant; it justified how the very thought of him put me into a rage. He had violated and shamed me, even though I was the one who had gone after him. And Guy…I was such an asshole, the way I treated him, pushed him away, neglected him. That night after leaving Alec, I stopped by the liquor store and picked up an expensive bottle of wine and headed to Guy’s place. Learning about the Aurora coin made my guilt even worse and I wanted to bring Guy a peace offering. You see, we weren’t living together anymore. As soon as I earned enough money working for Katze, I rented my own apartment. It was a total hole in the wall, but I wanted to get away from Guy even though my goal was to buy our way out of Ceres. Guilt will make you do all sorts of hurtful things, but the less I saw of Guy, the easier it was to live with what I had done.“You know I’m working long hours,” I told Guy when I packed up my few things from his place. “The apartment is so much closer to my boss’ warehouse.” The look of hurt on Guy’s face cut me to the core and that’s why I made up my mind to get the hell out of there. I wouldn’t be able to deal with him; I loved him too much to see him suffer because of me.“Who’s your boss, Riki?” Guy asked for the millionth time. “Does he treat all his employees like slaves? Shit, just quit the job if he’s working you to the bone. We don’t need the money!”I finished stuffing what few clothes I had into a duffel bag and slung it over my shoulder. “We do need the money, Guy. I’m getting us out of here, remember?” I stopped in front of him and rested my cheek on his shoulder. I wanted so bad to cry but nothing came out. My heart ached, but I was so empty inside all the same. “There’s nothing worse than this…living like we do. I want something better for us.” I pressed my face into his neck and breathed him in and there he was, the same boy who had held me all those nights in Guardian and kept me warm. “I love you, Guy. You know that don’t you?”Guy put his arms around me and that’s when I felt the first tears come finally. It was a relief to let it out. I sobbed into him and Guy squeezed me tighter and caressed my back, my shoulders, like he used to when we were just kids and so clueless about our future.“Riki, what’s wrong? If you’re in trouble, all you have to do is tell me.”I wiped my nose on my sleeve, disgusted with myself. “I’m not in trouble.” I wasn’t. I wasn’t! “It won’t be much longer,” I promised him as I headed out the door. “Be patient, Guy. I’ll have enough soon to get us both out of this shithole.” Katze had told me that the next shipment was for a client paying a steep fee and my cut would be three times what I normally made. If I could string together a few more of those jobs, then I could make good on my promise to Guy. We’d be gone from Ceres. Shit, maybe we’d be gone from Amoï altogether, and I’d be free of the biggest mistake of my life thus far, free of that Blondie and the memory of what I had done with him. When I showed up with the wine, Guy was shocked that I could afford to buy such a luxury item. He accused me of stealing it but I was too wasted to take offense. Instead, I flopped down on his bed, the room spinning around me, and laughed like an idiot. I had quit Bison when I started working for Katze and now I felt even further detached from Guy. Nothing made sense. I was working my ass off so I could leave the slums and take Guy with me, but I had also moved out and we hadn’t had sex in ages, we barely saw each other at all.“Why won’t you tell me what’s going on with you, Riki?”Guy was still standing by the sofa holding the bottle of wine, watching me with worry etched all over his face. He made no move to come near me and suddenly the space between us seemed like a chasm that couldn’t be bridged. I was bombed out of my head, but my heart had a mind of its own, and it wanted to go back to that place…that place before things went sideways, when it was just me and Guy and we loved each other with nothing terrible and golden coming between us.I held out my hand to him and murmured, “Let’s do it, Guy.” I rarely ever initiated sex, but that night I wanted to feel close to him. He set the wine bottle on the coffee table and got into bed beside me. “Do you remember…the way it used to be?” I asked, reaching for him. In the dim light he looked so handsome, his grey eyes glistened and I just knew that as he held me with his gaze, I was still beautiful to him, I was still his Riki. He kissed me soft and sweet, just like the first time, and I was happy. “Our first kiss…” I said, letting the memory wash over me. I never thought for a moment that this one would be our last one.
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“Well?” I had half an hour before I needed to leave for a reception being held in Parthea for some Federation ambassadors and, never one to waste an idle moment, I called Katze for a weekly status report. His pale face appeared within seconds on my monitor, a cigarette dangling from his lips. Katze started chain smoking after he was relieved of his duties as my Furniture and insisted on keeping his current office in a dank dark basement beneath a pharmacy in a crummy part of Midas rather than in the posh suite of rooms I had reserved for him in a swank skyscraper. His idea of masochism wasn’t remotely funny. “All deliveries were on schedule,” he told me in his usual monotone, “although I had to fire one of the men in the warehouse.” “Reason?” “He was five minutes late.” “I see.” Katze was a stickler for details, a quality I valued. I held out my glass and Daryl, who was standing beside my chair dressed in the new light blue satin vest and trousers I had recently ordered for him as a reward for good work, immediately refilled my glass like the attentive little Furniture he was. I took a long sip of the wine and closed my eyes to better appreciate the subtle astringency of the tannins on my palate. These receptions for off-world diplomats currying economic favors and seeking political alliances were tedious but a necessary evil, and alcohol made it somewhat bearable. I could only imagine how inebriated Raoul would be. Gideon and Orphe and Aisha lived for these events—it provided a stage on which they could show off their Elite superiority to mere mortals—but Raoul, with his scientist’s mindset, viewed humans as bipedal lab rats and could barely tolerate the charade. He had no patience for these meet-and-greet palm-greasing sessions and would usually sit in a corner twirling his golden locks in his fingers until he could sneak off without anyone noticing, or he’d play chess with a companion droid while his latest Pet sat at his feet blinking dumbly. I found the whole thing sadly entertaining and couldn’t help wondering if my favorite brother had already polished off a bottle or two in preparation. “Anything else?” I asked Katze, who had been waiting patiently for me to end the call. “The…uh…the mongrel you asked me to hire…”“Yes. How is that piece of trash faring?” Those words rolling off my tongue—that piece of trash—gave me tremendous satisfaction for some reason. I found myself smiling and savoring the wine even more.“Surprisingly well,” Katze informed me.“Oh? What’s his name again?” “Riki, Master. He’s followed all my instructions, completed his tasks on time.” There was a pause, and then Katze continued, “Some of the other men have a problem with his background. They provoke him.” “And?”“He’s gotten into a few fights; nothing serious. If they attack, he defends himself.”I laugh with genuine amusement. “How mongrel-like.” The scene easily unfolds in my head: that filthy slum dog baring his teeth, hands curled into fists, crouched low and spitting fire while facing off with a much larger opponent who lunges forward and body slams the little scoundrel into the floor, grapples him in a chokehold until his slender body goes limp like a tiny ragdoll. Pure delight courses through my veins.“Um…Master…do you think it wise to pursue this endeavor? The way I see it, it—”“If I wanted an opinion,” I interrupt, annoyed that Katze took me out of my violent reverie, “I would consult with Lord Am.” My disgraced ex-Furniture is an excellent worker—in fact, he is indispensable to me in managing all the Black Market transactions in Midas—but his intelligence is what got him into hot water in the first place. The burden fell on me to remind him to color inside the lines. “I beg your forgiveness, Master, I was—”“Yes, yes,” I interrupt again, “enough of the groveling, for crying out loud.” The image of Katze on his hands and knees after I had struck him with the crop and cut a deep gash across his face was something that often arose in my mind whenever he apologized. I found it to be immensely irritating. Wasn’t it more sensible to not make a mistake in the first place? I had also offered to pay for that ugly scar to be removed, but Katze preferred to leave it be. That was also annoying. Humans! The ones with a semblance of intelligence and talent and originality were so rare, though, and that dark-haired, dark-eyed mongrel had sparked an interest in me. The next Pet auction would be held within the month and I couldn’t help but wonder what Raoul’s reaction would be if, instead of purchasing one of his brainless Academy purebloods, I were to take as my Pet a wild dog from the slums. Surely, my brother would have a conniption for the ages! I stifled my laughter as I gave Katze my final instructions for the night, “Have the mongrel deliver those twins. Gauge his reaction and report back to me.” It would be my own private joke and I only regretted that I would not be present in the room when that foul-mouthed cur was told to ship a pair of specially crafted Pets to one of the wealthiest collectors on the planet. Would he be curious? Jealous? Surely, a lowlife like him had never set eyes on such refined creatures. Would he want to rip their throats out, set upon them like a wolf on two helpless lambs and tear them limb from limb? Slum dogs were known to be impulsive and barbaric by nature, with no shame or morality, driven by the basest of human instincts. That dark-haired one had already given me a taste of such wildness, and traces of his peculiarly distinct pheromones were still vivid on my tongue. Breaking such a feral animal would present a new challenge, and the prospect of putting my hands on him again and bringing a savage beast to heel made my pulse quicken. Oh, how I wanted to bend him to my will! Those sweet cries he made that night were still ringing in my ears; all that pride ripped to shreds because of me…it was like pulling the wings off a fly, only so much more satisfying. A fly didn’t put up much of a fight, but that mongrel had snarled and spat and cursed…to have a Pet such as that to train… “Will that be all then?”“Yes, Katze, that will be all.” The doorbell chimed just as my video conferencing monitor went dark and Daryl hurried to the main entrance to greet my visitor. I remained seated in my office chair enjoying my glass of wine. I still had almost fifteen minutes before I had to leave and I was in no hurry to arrive early to the reception. In another moment, I could smell Raoul’s cologne precede him into my office, then his cheek next to mine and the scent of a crisp Gewürztraminer on his breath as he gave me a chaste kiss. “Care for a Pinot noir?” I offered. “Why not?” Raoul replied. “I’m in a festive mood.” I swiveled around in my chair and saw that Raoul was wearing the gold and violet brocade jacket that I—or rather, Daryl—had purchased as a gift. I, in turn, had showed my appreciation for Daryl’s shopping acumen by having a new uniform tailored for him. The light blue satin was flattering against Daryl’s silvery-blond hair and he quickly poured Raoul a glass of Pinot. Standing behind Raoul and led by a decorative braided silk leash attached to a diamond studded collar was Raoul’s prized Pet, Mimea. Her short wavy hair was a pale lilac, her cupid bow lips bright red. She was petite with perky breasts befitting a young female Pet of pureblood and finest breeding. It was all quite nauseating, but I could see that Raoul was as pleased with the new jacket as he was with his Pet, one he had created in his own lab.“Well, don’t you look stunning,” I praised. It was no lie. No one but Raoul could wear colors that would normally make your eyes bleed. Somehow, he was able to pull it off. Perhaps it was those emerald irises of his; they were so bright green that everything paled in comparison. I stood up and gave him a fraternal peck on the cheek in return. “Let’s sit out in the living room while we have our drink.” I led the way and noticed that Mimea was wearing a matching gold and violet barrette in her hair. Oh Raoul, you are too much!“So,” Raoul said as soon as we made ourselves comfortable on the sofa and Mimea crouched at his feet. “I have found the ideal Pet for you. His name is Jenna and he would be perfect to mate with my Mimea. Let me warn you, though, Gideon has his eyes on Jenna, but if you place an early bid, then I’m sure you—”I clamped a gloved hand over Raoul’s mouth, something I would never do in public for we Elites observe the strictest of social etiquette in front of others, but since we were in the privacy of my residence and Raoul and I were no strangers to touching each other in intimate ways when shielded from prying eyes, I felt compelled to nip this nonsense in the bud. I leaned in and whispered low to the side of Raoul’s face, “If Gideon wishes to acquire this Jenna, then allow our brother his heart’s desire.” I darted my tongue out, tracing it along the shell of his ear before kissing Raoul on the cheek once more. All it took was the lightest tap on his chin for him to turn his face towards me. By the time I was done ravishing his mouth with my own, he had completely forgotten about this Pet named Jenna that I must purchase at the upcoming auction. Between the wine and the tongue calisthenics, Raoul was putty in my hands. His Pet Mimea, though, was another matter. I kept one eye on her as I kissed Raoul and saw her steal a glance up at us instead of keeping her eyes lowered to the floor. That one was going to be trouble, I thought. I had the overwhelming urge to crush her empty skull, but Raoul was so lovely in my arms, I dialed back my loathing for this creature and brought Raoul’s hand to my lips instead and kissed his gloved knuckles.“Let’s get this over with, shall we?” I downed the rest of my wine and placed the empty glass on the table in front of the sofa. “We’ll make our appearances, then you can send your Pet to bed and we can play a round of pool.”“Just pool?” asked Raoul, his green eyes darkening with naughty thoughts.“If you refrain from annoying me with talk about Pets,” I told him, “then we can play with all sorts of rods and balls.” ***The following week, I happened to pay a visit to one of Raoul’s labs. He had been experimenting with a new type of biological military ‘weapon’ and, since I was in charge of dealing illegal arms, he had asked me to take a look and assess the viability of such a ‘product.’ The marine creature didn’t have all that many strategic applications, as far as I could tell, but my disappointment in its limited use was brushed away by a serendipitous meeting for I saw him again. That’s right, my little dark-haired, dark-eyed mongrel had followed me somehow into the facility and now found himself trapped in the room in which the marine creature was kept. It was too funny! I had to hand it to him, though, the fact that he had gotten as far as that room. The entrance to the lab was protected by a security code known only to a few with high clearance and the mongrel had managed to hack into the system and gain access. Amazing!Even better was the look on his face when I found him in a sheer panic. He was obviously frightened by what he had seen and then even more afraid when he couldn’t find the exit. Seeing him on the floor hyperventilating was a picture worth a thousand words.“Do you need my assistance?” I asked. It took all my self-control not to burst into laughter when recognition dawned on him. There it was, that furious, insolent, defiant glare. Ah, it made me feel alive. “Didn’t Katze tell you that curiosity is what killed the cat?” I paused and let my words sink in before I added, “Riki.” I can honestly say, I had never enjoyed such pleasure in the hundreds of years of my existence as I felt at that moment when his eyes widened with shock after I said his name. His name. Riki.“Who the fuck are you?” he said in response.The fear in his strangled voice was like a jolt of electricity down my titanium spine. I stood over him as he sat slumped against the wall of the holding cell, his breath coming in choked gasps, his heart beating so fast and loud I heard it like a drum pounding in my head and syncing with the beating of my own artificial heart in my chest. Yes. I was a god and he…he was nothing. Nothing but the wildest, untamed thing I wanted to crush. I wanted to destroy this thing, this beautiful dark animal, destroy it and mould it into something else, something I could call my own and make obey my every command. It was with supreme satisfaction that I answered his question. "Iason Mink." Never had saying my own name filled me with so much power._______Here’s the video of Riki vs Iason in a WWE smackdown posted by shinnobineko55. If you’ve never played these old-timey two-player head-to-head type games, you’ve missed out on a shitload of fun.
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You’d think that inviting that Blondie to the love hotel would be my worst call ever, right? Wrong! Like an idiot, I fucked myself over not even three months after that horrible decision. I caught a glimpse of that Elite douchebag riding in a taxi when I was on my way home from a delivery. I wasn’t thinking right and maybe it was the courier job that Katze had me do right beforehand that messed with my mind. Katze had called me to his office and when I arrived I found two freakish kids sitting on his sofa. “They’re twins,” Katze told me, “and I need you to deliver them to their new Master.”These kids, what looked like a male and a female, weren’t fully human, but that’s not what unnerved me. It was the fact that they were so young that made my stomach turn. Some sick pervert was buying these things—they couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old—and I was the one who had to deliver them to be used as living sex dolls. Growing up in Guardian, I’d seen plenty of kids get beat up and abused in all sorts of ways, not just by the other kids, but by adults who were bribing the headmaster for ‘private time’ in one of the classrooms. I didn’t need to guess what was happening because the victims would always be sent to the infirmary with injuries or, worse, they would disappear altogether. Luckily for me, I was scrawny and what the Mothers and Sisters warned others as ‘prone to disobedience’ and a ‘biter’ so I was never targeted by the grown ups. I could defend myself just fine against the other kids, but these interspecies twins that Katze wanted me to deliver to someone halfway across Amoï were screwed for sure. I could only swallow my disgust and be grateful that Guy had waited for me, waited until I was thirteen before he put the moves on me, waited until I was ready for him and then treated me with a loving touch.Maybe that’s why I flipped my shit when I saw the Blondie who had molested me that night; it brought up all kinds of bad memories. Maybe it was my guilt, too, about delivering those kids when I should have refused, but I was afraid that Katze would fire me if I disobeyed his order. This one job was paying triple what I normally earned and I was so close to racking up enough money to get me and Guy the hell out of Ceres that I just looked the other way. I should have looked the other way, too, when I saw the Blondie going the other direction in the tunnel after I had returned from the delivery. I was on my way home. I was going to grab something to eat, shower, and pay Guy a rare visit. I was even thinking we’d have sex; it had been awhile and I was actually in the mood to get piped. Even if that didn’t happen, it would still be nice to sleep next to him rather than alone in my own dumpy apartment.But no. I just had to do something as stupid as before. I turned my utility van around and followed the taxi, watched the Blondie exit the vehicle and then enter a door at the side of the tunnel. Katze had given me a watch with a built-in access override feature so I could bypass all the security stations on my various deliveries. It was a time saver since just one swipe of the device could get me past the tightest checkpoints. Otherwise, I’d have to sit on my ass for a good fifteen minutes, maybe even half an hour waiting for all the clearance protocols to be run and verified. It was one of the perks of working for Katze in the Black Market. The man could get around all the rules that everyone else had to follow. What a goddamn disaster for me, though.I must have wandered around for a good ten minutes before I came to a door that actually opened, and then I found myself in an empty room with an aquarium built into the floor and a bizarre half-fish, half-human creature swimming around in the tank below my feet. It screeched at me and the high pitched sound piercing the low humming of machinery in the room had me scrambling for the door, a door which had somehow disappeared. Good thing there’s no one here to see me shitting my pants, I thought to myself. I’d never be able to live that down. Only, there was someone who saw me panicking like a pussy, and that someone was very tall and very blond and had materialized like some shining god out of thin air to ask me if I needed help. It was him. Again! And for some reason he knew my name—he knew Katze’s name, too!—and that’s when fear took hold of me like never before. In all my life, I had never been so afraid, not when I was in Guardian, not when I was running wild in the streets of Ceres as the leader of Bison, not even when I had first come under the thumb of this Blondie in that love hotel. No, when he called me ‘Riki,’ I knew I was fucked beyond redemption, as fucked as those twins I had delivered to some wealthy pedophile. Within the half hour, my sorry ass was hauled off to Midas by some uniformed guards after my second run-in with that Blondie. Iason Mink. I had plenty of time to recall his name, and the sound of his voice echoing in that weird aquarium room, because I was taken to a non-descript building in Mistral Park, led into a sub-basement through a maze of hallways and locked in a small windowless room outfitted with a cot bolted to the concrete floor, a toilet, a sink, and a security camera installed on the high ceiling. It was a jail cell, but I wasn’t at the Midas Police Station; I knew what that building looked like and this wasn’t it at all. This was a building located next to the enormous exposition center where they held the Pet auctions. I was kept in that room for at least a week from what I could gather based on the number of meals that would be passed through the slot in the metal door. It was the only way I could judge time since I had been stripped of my watch and it was impossible for me to know if it was day or night. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling were never turned off and there was no clock on the bare walls. All I could do was pace around and scream up at the security camera.“Where am I? Why am I here? Am I under arrest? What’s my charge?”Nobody spoke to me, not the guards who brought my meals, not the man in the white lab coat—I assume he was a doctor of some sort—who took a sample of my blood and examined me head to toe not long after I was incarcerated. “Are you looking for lice or ticks? Think I got rabies?” I snarked. He injected me with something that made my head swim and my body go numb and listless. Maybe he was tired of listening to me barking at him, but at that point I could do nothing but lie on the cot like a ragdoll and let him poke and prod at me: my hair, my eyes, my teeth, my ears, my genitals. Then he left and I was dressed in a flimsy gown that barely covered my knees. I laid there waiting for the effects of the drug to wear off, ruing my own stupidity.Why had I followed him? What was I even going to do with that Blondie anyway? It had all been so spur of the moment. One glimpse of him in that taxi and so much anger had exploded inside me like a bomb. I guess I wanted to confront him, shove that Aurora coin up his ass. “You fucked me up!” Is that what I wanted to say to him? I had every opportunity to vent my fury at him in that room, but I had merely gaped at him like a total spaz. The only words I had managed to get past my lips were, “Who the fuck are you?” I was so pathetic! His icy blue stare, his soft emotionless voice, his long blond hair framing his impossibly beautiful face like a golden halo…his dominating presence was like a poison seeping inside my mind, my body, my soul, like a drug that left me utterly paralyzed. And now I was in some kind of prison for what? Stalking a Blondie? Was that a capital offense warranting a death penalty? I had no idea. Maybe I was in trouble for trespassing, for breaking into a private facility? Which one was worse? I wasn’t allowed a phone call, but if I had been, who could I even reach out to for help? Guy? Katze? Shit, the Blondie had made it sound like he knew Katze. Did that mean that they were friends? Or enemies? Man oh man, if only I hadn’t been so impulsive and reckless, but like they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty and I was so blind to the present.“Riki, you dumbass!” I berated myself as I prowled the narrow confines of my cell over the course of those monotonous days, waiting and wondering. Whenever the guards would shove my tray of food through the slot, I’d pound on the door and shout, “Let me out of here! Motherfuckers! Let me out or just fucking kill me already! How long are you gonna keep me in this shithole, goddamn it!”It was the same thing every day—me pacing, pounding, shouting—and then one day the guards entered my room and tasered me without the slightest warning. The man in the lab coat came in behind them and injected me once again with that same numbing drug. I was put on a gurney and rolled down the hallway, then another hallway and into a washroom where I was hosed down and scrubbed by men in hazmat suits; my teeth were cleaned, my hair and nails were trimmed, and I was dressed in the sluttiest outfit I’d ever seen. Okay, so maybe Guy and I would rock matching crop tops in Ceres, but that was considered standard dress code among slumdogs. We were young and fit and showing off your ripped abs was a way to project dominance and power, but this…this flimsy two-piece sheer bikini they made me wear was doing nothing but screaming, “Hey, get a load of my nips and junk! I’m a whore! Who wants some cheap booty?”Holy hell, my boys in Bison would die laughing if they saw me got up like this, or maybe they’d be creaming their pants, especially Luke and maybe Sid…Guy would probably want to bang me if he ever recovered from the shock…but then I was carted up an elevator and put in a large room with a bunch of other people, boys and girls who looked to be around twelve or thirteen and they were all dressed like I was in the same revealing outfits. One of the guards put a leather collar around my neck attached to a chain, which he held firmly in his hand. At the front of the collar dangled a metal tag. I couldn’t see what the tag said, but I could read the writing on the tags hanging from the collars around the necks of the other kids. On each tag was stamped a combination of letters and numbers. I had to assume my own tag had a similar letter/number combination.The atmosphere inside the room was heavy with anticipation and a weird excitement, not from me, but from the wide-eyed boys and girls sitting quietly with their own chaperones. In the silence of the room, I could hear the muffled voice of a man calling out a series of currency amounts. My stomach dropped into my feet. I suddenly realized who these other kids were. I had delivered Pets for Katze and these kids were the right age and appearance and demeanor—they were barely pubescent, doll-like and docile—and the room we were in must be located right behind the stage of the auditorium. I looked around, my mouth dry with terror but my skin damp with sweat, my eyes searching for the exit. I had to get the fuck out of there! I was almost sixteen, for shit’s sake, a mongrel from Ceres and these kids were Pets from the various breeding mills. I didn’t belong here!“There must be some mistake!” I rasped at the guard holding the chain attached to my collar. I tried to stand up but my legs weren’t working. Shit! When was that drug going to wear off? I had to make a run for it! My guard pulled the chain taut instead, giving it a jerk that almost wrenched my neck off my shoulders.“Be quiet, you little punk ass bitch,” he muttered into my ear. “One more word out of you and I’ll make you sorry.”Fuck that shit! I turned my head and bit his hand as hard as I could, breaking the skin with my teeth. He yelped and pulled his hand back to smack me upside the head, but then he stopped mid-swing, his face scrunched up in a deep scowl. The kids around us were all gasping with surprise and some started crying like babies pissing their diapers, their chaperones all looking at me with disapproval. That’s when my guard lowered his fist, wiped his bleeding hand on his dark pants and announced to the room, “Now, now, Pets, everything is under control. This one here is only a little too eager to go to his new Master.”He took something out of his pocket and then I felt a prick on the back of my neck. In seconds, my vision blurred and the sounds of the room dulled to a low drone. I couldn’t string together two sentences to save my life, much less get my mouth working to say a word. I sat slumped against the guard’s leg, mute and confused. After some time—the room was almost emptied of Pets by now—I was dragged onto a brightly lit stage and positioned on a raised dais. A man standing behind a lectern reached down and checked the number on my tag against a list he held in his hand before straightening up and speaking into his microphone, “Lot number CM001. Estimated age: fifteen years. Male. Non-imprinted. Non-pedigreed. Breed type…” the man cleared his throat before continuing, “…breed type: mongrel. No reserve. Do I hear an opening bid?”The auditorium was dead silent. I couldn’t make out anyone sitting in the seats, my eyes simply wouldn’t focus, but I could still hear. If a pin had dropped, I would have heard it in that deafening silence, as would anyone else, it was so quiet. An eternity seemed to pass before one lone voice sliced through the thick gloom.“Fifty.”That voice saying just one simple word…I had only heard it a few times, but that voice was already burned into my soul. Fifty. Iason Mink was buying me for fifty Amoïan dollars, the same amount as the cheapest bottle of stout. “You bastard,” I said to myself, my face hot with the most abject humiliation. “I swear I will make you eat that fifty for the rest of your fucking life!” It didn’t occur to me that I would pay for my own mistakes in far dearer currency.
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“You can’t be serious.” I leaned back in my chair, stifling the laughter that threatened to erupt from deep within my chest. I didn’t need to turn around to know that Raoul’s face would be stricken with mortification. He had walked into my office while I was enjoying the scene playing out on my video display. For the last half hour, I had been watching the live feed from the holding cell in Mistral Park. I knew that Raoul would be stopping in—we had agreed to meet for a midday meal—but I simply couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen. I was so enthralled by the sight of the mongrel throwing a temper tantrum, beating his fists on the door and cursing up at the security camera even though he must know by now that there was no escape. “This one isn’t going to bore me anytime soon,” I thought to myself. Ahh, the prospect of acquiring a Pet that could actually amuse me sent a thrill up my spine! Raoul, though, was not of the same opinion at all. “Iason, this is madness,” Raoul insisted. He spun my chair around so I had to face him, gripping my shoulders firmly in his gloved hands as he pleaded his case. “A Pet is supposed to be an accessory flattering its owner, a status symbol that complements one’s rank and reputation. Taking a mongrel as a Pet is like dragging your good name through the mud! It is unacceptable!”“Now, now, brother,” I soothed, gracing him with a smile. “Since when do I care about status symbols or what others think of me?” “That’s the problem,” Raoul shot back. “You do as you wish, keeping wayward Furniture instead of disposing of them properly, making backroom deals in the Black Market—”“Are you telling me how to do my job now?” I interrupt. Raoul might be my favorite Blondie, but I wasn’t about to let him question my abilities. I never interfered with his lab experiments involving all sorts of genetic tampering, so it was only right for me to demand the same respect. He created the products that I would sell on the Black Market—be it Pets or drugs or botanical specimens—and the agreement was that we would not interfere with each other’s roles as appointed by Jupiter. “Of course not. I wouldn’t dare to do that,” Raoul replied, his tone contrite as he let me pull him onto my lap. “I worry for you, Iason. I’ll be the one to pick up the pieces if things go wrong. You know I can’t bear to see you punished.”I gave his waist a reassuring squeeze. Raoul had no qualms about conducting unethical tests in his various labs, but when it came to my image and reputation, he walked the straight and narrow, as if keeping me in line was more important than his own well-being. Of course, Raoul had been around longer than I had—Jupiter had created me as the last of the thirteen Blondies currently in existence—and maybe he had witnessed things, disciplinary things, meted out by Jupiter that I had yet to see or experience, but in all my personal dealings with my Master, she had let me choose my own path. As long as Jupiter didn’t tell me “no,” I would continue as I pleased. “Don’t be such a party pooper. Just look at that,” I said, turning us both towards the screen. The mongrel was bashing the food tray on the door, then flinging the badly dented tray across the room. “Have you ever seen anything so alive, so full of possibility?”Raoul’s lovely face crumpled in disgust. “And what if you can’t train that filthy beast? Then what will you do?”“Oh, I suppose I could tamper with its mind, turn it into an idiotic sex doll and sell it to a brothel.” That seemed to put Raoul more at ease and he rewarded me with a long-suffering sigh and a tender kiss on my cheek. I kissed his cheek in return and patted his thigh. “Let’s go to lunch now, shall we?” As we left my office, I snuck a final glance at the screen and let the vision linger on my brain: pure dark hair, defiant black eyes, such a pleasing sway to his body…Riki the Dark. I couldn’t wait to make him mine. *** The mongrel was one of the last offerings presented at the Pet auction. This did not surprise me. It had taken much wrangling from Katze to cut through all the red tape and, even then, numerous bribes and favors had been exchanged before ‘Z-107M’ was finally listed in the catalog. It would have been easier if I had simply demanded it, but both Katze and I agreed that it would be better if my name were not associated in any way with the unprecedented inclusion of a mongrel at a Pet auction. So, I bided my time, enjoying the antics of Riki the Dark in his holding cell until the evening finally arrived and I could purchase the very thing I had been wanting.He was listless and not his usual fiery self when he was dragged onto the stage and positioned on the dais with his legs spread so all could have a clear view of his assets. Again, this did not surprise me. I had given my consent beforehand that he be subdued using whatever means necessary. I didn’t want him breaking free somehow and escaping before I could even acquire him. Seeing him struggle to sit upright had its own positive points. I knew that it would take a fairly powerful sedative to render him helpless, yet he continued to struggle despite his very obvious delirium. I felt a semblance of pleasure and pride wash over me as my fellow Elites scoffed and laughed around me.“Look at that thing,” I heard an Onyx say. “How is that piece of trash even offered at auction?” An Onyx was beneath my attention, but then I heard him declare, “What laughable fool would pay even one Amoïan dollar for such shit?”That was all the incentive I needed, not that I needed any incentive. I had decided well beforehand that I would make that mongrel my Pet, but the Onyx’s disdainful opinion made my intentions all the sweeter. I held up my paddle and announced my bid. Fifty Amoïan dollars was a pittance, but it was still more than just one. And I was Iason Mink, the most beloved of Jupiter among all Elites, and I was going to put that Onyx and every other Elite in his fucking place. I was going to shove their self-righteousness down their throats! Most of them paid exorbitant amounts for their Pets, as if the price were a reflection of their own worth in the eyes of society. What slaves they were to their own vanities...and insecurities. I required no one's approval save Jupiter and myself. When the gavel came down and the auctioneer announced “Sold!” I laughed aloud. Beside me, Raoul was too appalled to even blink. I stood up, smoothed down my outer robes, and walked out of the auditorium. When I arrived back at my penthouse in Eos Tower, Daryl was there to greet me. “Ready the room,” I told my Furniture. “My new Pet will be delivered here tomorrow.”***I never miscalculated, but in this instance, even I had to admit that I was off in my estimation. I chalked it up to my limited experience with mongrels. A month had elapsed since I had taken Riki into my household and no progress had been made. He refused to be dressed or washed or cared for in any way by my Furniture. During the first week, he had bitten and punched Daryl; I saw evidence of this without even questioning my Furniture. Daryl’s face was purple with bruises, his arms covered in teeth marks. I beat my new Pet, caned him while he was chained facedown on the bed, but that only seemed to enrage him further. Strange. Most Pets would cower if a Master barely raised his voice, grovel and beg for forgiveness at the slightest sign of displeasure, but Riki seemed to court it. I arrived home one evening to see the living room sofa overturned, the decorative vases shattered against the wall and Daryl on his hands and knees trying to clean up the mess. I decided enough was enough. I sent my Furniture into his room to recuperate from what I knew was a day of unmitigated stress and, rather than beat my Pet once more, I took a different tact.“You’re being your usual self, burning anyone who tries to touch you,” I told Riki as I walked over to the bar and poured myself an aperitif. I righted the sofa and sat down on it. “It’s been a month. That should be more than adequate time for you to acclimate yourself but…I see you have awfully thick skin. You’re as stubborn as a brick wall.”“I can wipe my own ass!" the mongrel shouted. "Tell that kid to get the fuck off of me!”“I would expect no less from the former leader of Bison,” I replied. The look of shock and humiliation on Riki’s face filled me with satisfaction. He was so easy to dismantle. I chuckled, making sure he could see my enjoyment before I declared, “Still, I am confident that I can train you to be a proper Pet even in your current sorry state.” “Find someone else to lick your boots. Don’t you Blondies get to pick and choose whatever trash you want?”“Oh, it’s much too late for that.” I sipped my pre-dinner cocktail slowly, savoring the heat of my Pet’s anger. “Everyone already knows what garbage I’ve brought into my household. No, I have every intention of whipping you into shape, and then I’ll present you at the next Pet debut. Come, Riki.” I patted my lap. “Sit.”Of course, he refused, standing with his feet planted and his hands clenched into fists. His defiance only made my artificial blood run hot. He was older than most Pets, his body firm and leanly muscled unlike the soft smooth limbs of the pureblood Pets, and when all that coiled energy was coupled with an expression hardened with fury and cheeks flushed with hatred, it made him so much more beautiful, gloriously beautiful. It made me want to rip out his beating heart and press it to my own cheek, taste the very blood coursing through his veins and know that his will was made of unbending iron. “I told you before not to make me repeat myself,” I threatened even as my amusement curled my lips into a smile. “Sit.” He spat on the floor, then shuffled slowly to the sofa and sat at the other end. Oh ho, this was too good. “No, on my lap,” I ordered.“Tch.”I laughed aloud as he finally obeyed with a low growl. I pulled him close to my chest. “What are you afraid of?” Teasing him was so much fun, especially when I could make him blush with one pass of my gloved fingers across his face. “If you can’t do this on your own, then I’ll have Daryl help you out. Is that what you want?”“You fucking shithead,” Riki snarled. Well, he’d called me that a thousand times already and those curses were mere tickles against my skin. He was like no Pet I had ever owned. Most of them required little or no training, but Riki was completely free of any conditioning or imprinting. He was a lump of clay just waiting to be molded into a perfect form and it gave me pleasure I had never felt before to break him down into the smallest components, shred his pride until he had nothing left to cling to…except me. He couldn’t see it yet, but I would show him that I, his Master, would be his creator and his only reason to live.“I’ve heard that slum mongrels have no morality, no dignity. Am I wrong? What happened to all that licentiousness, all that filthy charisma you showed me when you invited me to that love hotel? Are you playing the innocent virgin now? I won’t always be this patient.”“I’m not a slut,” Riki protested. “I’m no nympho either!”I rested my hand on his groin and felt his cock twitch. Now we were getting somewhere. “A Pet’s coupling is a public affair,” I instructed. “A Pet is meant to perform for the enjoyment of its Master.” Training him to masturbate for me—there was no act more basic for a Pet—was still an uphill battle. I had to order him repeatedly to spread his legs so I could see clearly his arousal. Oftentimes, he would defy me altogether and then I’d have to call my Furniture and, together, we would train my Pet. I would hold Riki firmly in my arms as Daryl fellated him. At times, I wondered if Riki would ever come around, but tonight he was responding well despite his foul words.“So, you Elites are just a bunch of sick perverts? How pathetic!”Riki was squirming in my lap now as I continued to stroke his burgeoning cock. No matter what nonsense tumbled from his degenerate mouth, his body was honest in ways no other Pet had been for me. This mongrel was beyond adorable; he was naked despite all his efforts to hide the truth of his desire. “The party is in two months,” I told him, “and I will teach you proper manners.”“Good fucking luck,” Riki said, his hips grinding into my touch. “Slum mongrels are all dirty wild dogs, aren’t they?”“Even a wild dog like you can be tamed. I’m going to prove it to myself.” I stroked Riki through his trousers and felt him convulse against me, his body trembling for more. “When I show you off at the party, I won’t have you shame me. You are my Pet, Riki. You are Iason Mink’s Pet, and I will have your body remember that.”I unzipped his trousers and freed his erection. He was leaking from the tip, on the brink of orgasm and all it took was seven firm strokes and he was ejaculating into my gloved fist. I hadn’t even caressed his nipples for him to reach climax, he was so sensitive to my touch. What a diamond in the rough, my Riki. I carried him into his room and called for Daryl to undress him. I would bring him to orgasm many more times before I was done with him for the night. I would show all my brethren who were talking behind my back that I would not fail in my endeavor. I would prove them all wrong—even Raoul who disapproved of my decision to take a mongrel as a Pet—that Iason Mink could overcome any obstacle. I could take the dirtiest lump of coal and make it shine like the most precious gem.
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What did it mean to be a Pet owned by the most powerful Blondie in Tanagura?It meant air that didn’t smell like rotten eggs or shit or piss, a bed with clean silken sheets and a mattress so thick and fluffy it felt like I was floating on a cloud. It meant filtered water as clear as the glass that held it, food that hadn’t turned, and meat…real meat, not the fake stuff made of salt, dye, and sawdust.I was living in Eos Tower, so high up in the sky that I could see everything spread out down below: Midas, Ceres, even Dana Bahn way off in the distance. On a clear night, it felt like I could touch the stars just by reaching out my hand. I had never imagined such luxury even when prowling the most exclusive shopping districts of Flare, not even in Apatia, where the wealthiest citizens rented the best condos. I was living in the penthouse owned by Iason Mink, the most distinguished Blondie in all of Tanagura—probably all of Amoï—and its most perverted weirdo.Was it good? Was it beautiful? To live in such splendor…was it everything I had ever hoped for? Back in Ceres before all of this happened, I would have said, “Fuck, yeah, it’s a dream come true.”I wish I could kill myself for such stupidity. I wish I could kill myself for being such a fool. “So, why don’t you?” you ask. I’ll tell you why. My wrists and ankles are kept shackled night and day. I am freed only to eat and shit and piss and be bathed by a boy named Daryl. He is Iason Mink’s Furniture and my fucking babysitter. He treats me as if I’m some helpless snot-nosed brat who can’t wipe his own ass. I kid you not. Daryl has wiped my ass, held my dick so I can piss into the toilet when I could barely stand on my own two feet after being fucked to shreds by my Master.Where do I even start? So much of what happened in those early days is a blur. Sometimes it feels like an unending nightmare. If only it were just a nightmare. If it were, then at least I would have the hope to wake up one day and find myself back in my old dumpy apartment still working for Katze, or maybe I’d wake up and I’d be in bed with Guy, his arms around me, his breath on my forehead as he slept. I would snuggle closer to him, press my nose against his bare chest and…cry tears of relief…of happiness. I had wanted more, though. I was greedy for a better life and so I was punished. That’s what I told myself to make the days and nights bearable. I was in a prison; I was a toy, a plaything at the mercy of a perverted android. At first, I fought back because any mongrel worth his salt wouldn’t go down without a fight. I did everything I could to piss off that Blondie because I figured that was the only way to make him want to get rid of me. I didn’t care how he did it. He could beat me to death and that would be okay because then I’d be free of him at least. But he didn’t. Oh, he beat me alright, but he didn’t try to kill me. No, he always made sure that Daryl would tend to any wounds. That sick bastard was going to keep me alive just so he could torture me.I don’t know how much time passed. He kept threatening to show me off at some ‘Pet soiree’ or whatever the fuck he called it. I didn’t even know what it meant but I was pretty sure it was going to be a major disaster. He told me he was going to ‘train’ me. Holy fucking hell, even the sleaziest scumbags in Ceres didn’t do the things he did to me. He’d chain me up, then order me to jack off in front of him while he sat in a chair watching me.“Open your legs,” he’d say. “Let me see you.” If I refused, he’d call Daryl into the room and order him to blow me. If that didn’t get me hard, then he’d shove a gloved finger up my ass and…somehow or other he’d find that spot inside me that drove me crazy. He’d rub and pinch my nipples until I was moaning like a slut. I swear, I wanted to die. The things he did to me…it felt so good and horrible at the same time. Can you even understand? Can you imagine what it was to be Iason Mink’s Pet? I had never known such humiliation, such shame. I had never known anything that felt so amazing either. I felt reality slip away from me. Right before Iason brought me to my first ‘Pet soiree,’ he did something he had never done before. He fucked me himself. In all my interactions with him, he had never even attempted to do this, but one night, he told me that it was his right as my Master to take me himself. I didn’t know any better. I assumed that all Blondies did whatever they wanted. I had never seen him naked either and I admit that I was more than a little curious. As much as I hated him, I couldn’t deny that he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He chained me to the bed, as usual, then he undressed. I don’t know why, but I was surprised to see that he looked just like a human: he had nipples and a cock and balls. His skin, though, was completely hairless, so white and smooth and perfect, and when he lay on top of me, his body felt cool to the touch. It was the first time I had felt his skin on my own and, despite all my anger and disgust, I wanted him. I wanted him to destroy me, hurt me, make me cry. He had taken everything from me already: my life in Ceres, Guy, my freedom. What was left but my pride for him to take as well?It hurt more than anything I had ever known. Iason was huge, his cock. Guy wasn’t small by any standards, but Guy always took his time with me. He was patient and considerate, kind and loving. Iason was Iason. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted. He shoved himself into me and then fucked me without mercy. It went on forever. By the end, when Iason finally tired of me, I was bleeding and completely broken. Literally. I felt like every bone in my body was in pieces. I couldn’t even leave the bed, couldn’t get up to take a piss. Daryl had to clean me up, then hold my dick so I could pee into a bowl. For the next few days, he had to help me walk to the bathroom so he could bathe me. It was days after that before I could take a shit without being in agony. Do you understand now?I was taken to the ‘Pet soiree’ eventually. All the other Pets hated me instantly. They sneered at me, called me names, told me I stunk up the whole place with my slum odor. One of the Pets, some pampered shithead named Enif, actually slapped me. It was laughable and I told him so.“That’s not how you hit someone,” I said. “You do it like this."I punched him in the face and he went down like a pussy, crying and moaning to his Master for help. I figured Iason would beat the crap out of me but, to my shock, he told Enif’s Master that whoever starts a fight is the one at fault. Was that weirdo actually defending me? All the way back to Eos Tower I was on pins and needles. I knew I was out of line when I hit that idiot Pet, and I knew that Iason was all into discipline, but when we got back to the penthouse, Iason didn’t cane me. He put me to bed and laid down beside me in his clothes. I didn’t know what to think except that he smelled so good and that I hated him for it. Why did he have to smell so good? Then, he kissed me. He had never kissed me before. It took me by surprise. Like his skin, his lips felt cool against my own. It made me shiver. It made me hate him so much it felt like my heart would explode. “Don’t do this to me,” I thought. Then, “Do it more.” But he didn’t. He gave me that one kiss—a kiss that left me aching for release, for a warm body, for someone to hold me and tell me that my life wasn’t totally fucked beyond repair—and then he left me in darkness.“Guy,” I sobbed into my pillow, “where are you? Are you okay? It’s so cold here. I’m all alone. Guy. I miss you so much.”
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Time was running short, or so I told myself. After nearly three months, Riki had only become more insolent, more obstinate. Even as his body grew increasingly sensitive and responsive to my touch, his attitude continued to harden. He defied my commands, obeying only when beaten or chained into submission. He reveled in his scorn and spite, wore it like a jeweled crown fit for a mad king and, oh, he was glorious in his fury. Unfortunately, my brothers would not view it that way; they didn’t see what I saw. I would be bringing him to his first public showing in a little over a week and I would not be shamed by him, my beautiful Riki. If he would not bend, then I would break him instead for his own good. The memory of that encounter in the love hotel had settled in my mind. I recalled it frequently, replayed it over and over like one reads a favorite poem. I could see it all very clearly, the way his black eyes had beckoned like a light flashing in the darkness, the way his slender hips had arched into my hand, the way his whole body had shook and shivered in my embrace. Where that boy had gone was anyone’s guess, but I would find him again. I had to. I was Iason Mink. That was reason enough.That night in the hotel, he had asked me why I didn’t undress before I had my way with him. Such a silly, ignorant question! Perhaps he had truly believed that he was repaying some debt by selling his body—as if a mongrel could ever repay a debt to a Blondie in such a depraved manner—but for me, it was mere curiosity, a disciplinary action that I had been willing to forgo if not for his arrogant insistence. A Blondie undressing in order to correct a Pet’s errant behavior was a preposterous notion. And yet, with Riki determined to be my Pet-Who-Would-Not-Be-Trained, I found myself wondering, “Why not? All else has failed. Why not do the unthinkable?” He had been so eager for me to copulate with him in that love hotel…perhaps I should, even if it meant debasing myself. Perhaps that was the only way to train a slum mongrel. They came from filth, after all, and maybe filthy acts were the only things they understood. He had been the leader of Bison, nothing more than a pack of wild dogs, but he was their alpha nonetheless. According to the literature available on the behavior of mongrels, an alpha will only submit to an even more dominant alpha, one that is bigger, stronger, more willful. Out of desperation, I downloaded the latest Pet ownership manual, written by none other than my dear Raoul Am. After consulting it, I was certain that I had employed all the standard methods, followed the established protocols, but to no avail. Truth be told, I’d never had to train a Pet before. All the ones I had owned in the past had come into my household fully imprinted and ready to show and breed. Riki was the first Pet who had ever disobeyed my orders. He was also the first Pet who actually…excited me. He was the lowest form of human, yet no Academy engineered Pet of the purest blood came close to him in unadulterated beauty, none of them possessed even an iota of the fire and spirit that burned so brightly in his obsidian eyes. He was my Riki, my dazzling, demon Pet, and I would make him know his Master even if I had to pound it into the very marrow of his bones.***Looking back on it, I realize that my desire to not have Riki embarrass me at his ‘debut’ was just an excuse for me to satiate a craving that had been building inside me since that night in the love hotel. He had awakened something in me that I didn’t understand at the time. It was something so foreign, so bizarre…a feeling that I had never experienced before, one that would haunt me day and night once he was my Pet in Eos Tower. It was like an itch I couldn’t scratch, an itch right beneath my skin, if only I could find it. There was no relief from this craving, this itch. Every time I thought of Riki, it worsened, until I thought I would go mad. Of course, I showed none of this weakness to my peers, and certainly not to my Pet. In front of Riki, I maintained my honorable, discreet demeanor. I spoke coldly, even cruelly to him, because that is what a Master did if a Pet misbehaved. It was what was expected. But each time he fought me—each time he shouted vulgar words and thrashed about on the bed, pulling on the chains until his wrists and ankles were rubbed raw—it only made me want to feel him against me, right up against my bare skin. I wanted to know him in every way possible, touch him without my gloves. I wanted to tear down the barrier between us.So, one night when he had been particularly bratty, I put Riki over my lap and spanked him, softly at first, and then more firmly when he swore a blue streak at me. He called me obscene names, accused me of the most heinous perversions, and it was like a symphony composed by Jupiter herself. I knew then that I would show him everything. To be naked with a lowly mongrel Pet was pure insanity, but by then I was out of my mind with the need to drive myself into him. I had never wanted this before, but I had never owned such a force of nature either. I was helpless before his trembling flesh.Though we Elites are sterile, Jupiter fashioned us in a human mould, with human responses to exterior stimuli. I had enjoyed illicit pleasures with Raoul through the years, but that paled in comparison to what I was feeling with my Pet. There was a storm inside me, a tornado of uncontrollable hunger, and I would let it loose. I chained his wrists to the headboard, leaving his legs free for me to manipulate, then I calmly undressed even as my artificial heart threatened to beat right out of my chest. What was I doing? What crime was I going to commit against Jupiter and everything that I had been taught? The look of shock and fear on his face made me throw all caution to the wind. He was so beautiful, my Riki, so astonishingly honest when I gripped his ankles and thrust myself deep inside him. His cries, his tears…I was dragging myself through the mud, defiling myself in a way no Blondie would ever dare to do…but his cries, his tears would wash me clean.Afterwards, when I saw the blood on the sheets, I called for my Furniture to clean him up. Then I went to my room and lay down on my own unsoiled bed. My mind was a blank. It was strange to be devoid of thoughts. I closed my eyes and put myself to sleep mode. Six hours later, I awoke refreshed and sane. I went to my office and conducted my usual business as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. All was right again. A week passed and then I took Riki to his coming-out reception. All my fellow Elites were there. They were curious to see if Iason Mink was able to whip a slum mongrel into a form suitable for a Blondie’s Pet. Riki did not disappoint. He promptly got into a fight with one of the most expensive Pets acquired at auction to date, a handsome but idiotic Pet named Enif. This stupid Enif slapped my Riki after an angry exchange of words between them and I almost burst into laughter because I knew what my Pet was capable of doing. Ah, Riki! My Pet landed a punch squarely on the jaw of Enif and it took all my self control to refrain from leaping up and clapping and shouting “Bravo!” I was so proud of him. He had strength; he was fearless in the face of disapproval. It gave me courage when I didn’t even know I needed it.All the way back to the penthouse he was quiet and subdued. I assumed he was expecting me to beat him for acting out against another Pet. How adorable! Riki was learning and it made my whole body thrum with joy. I undressed him and then I put him to bed myself instead of calling for my Furniture to perform such a mundane task. Riki was being so contrite I decided to leave him unchained for once. I kissed him goodnight, just one chaste kiss even though I wanted so badly to ravish his sweet lips. Though he had shown me a glimmer of obedience, I knew he was far from tame and, like all wild animals, I knew better than to touch him too often and too freely. I would have to proceed slowly and with discernment if I wished to avoid getting bitten. What a challenge he was! How had I lived before this, how had I endured the boredom? I would never be bored again. As long as I had Riki, my life would be worth living. ***“That was quite a scene,” Raoul commented dryly when I saw him a month after Riki’s public debut. “All of Tanagura is full of gossip. Are you satisfied now, to have your good name tarnished by that piece of trash?”Yes, that is how my brother greeted me as we began a round of pool in the club room reserved for Blondies in Eos Tower. His words were harsh and likely true, but I was unconcerned. I had been away on a series of diplomatic missions off-world and had just returned the day before. It had been a tedious trip full of endless meetings; hours upon hours had been spent negotiating trade agreements and it had been particularly irritating because those were hours I could have spent playing with my Pet instead. I suppose the talks would have concluded sooner had I not been so distracted with thoughts of Riki’s supple flesh beneath my bare fingertips, but that couldn’t be helped. My head was in a cloud, as they say. I was walking on sunshine. Or perhaps I had merely lost my mind.As soon as I arrived back home, I went straight to Riki’s room. I found him in the en suite shower pleasuring himself and the sight of him stroking his erect member filled me with satisfaction. “He’s coming around at last,” I thought to myself. “He’s finally learning to be a proper Pet.” What a good boy he was! I silently watched from the doorway, waited until he brought himself to climax before taking a towel off the rack and holding it open for him. Of course, he was shocked and furious to see me standing in the bathroom. Unlike an ordinary Pet who would have immediately assumed a submissive position upon seeing its Master, perhaps fallen on its hands and knees to kiss my boots, he grabbed the towel in a huff and turned his back on me. I suspect his cheeks were flushed more from shame than from the hot shower. There was plenty for me to teach him yet.There was more for me to learn as well. Time away from Tanagura, with its incessant gossip circulating among my brothers about my recent actions, had given me some much needed distance, a different perspective from which to view my current dilemma with Riki. I realized I may have gone too far, been too abrupt in my attempt at a more unorthodox training technique. Well, ‘unorthodox’ might be too forgiving a word, but my intention was pure. As I said, it’s all a matter of perspective. Riki was a mongrel, and like all mongrels, according to scientific research available in the database, it was in his nature to be wary, suspicious, untrusting of others. It was also in his nature to be crass, crude, and given to fits of violence. Humans, mongrels especially, were prone to be irrational when threatened or in an unfamiliar environment. My assumption that he would respond to training if a firm hand was applied had proven incorrect. My subsequent foray into using his own ‘language’ to communicate with him—that is, by engaging in the lowest form of sexual activity like a debauched mongrel would—had been equally non-productive, perhaps even detrimental. I had not injured him beyond repair, but he had suffered wounds nonetheless and that was never my goal.Humans are weak and fragile compared to Jupiter’s creation and Riki’s injuries were a reminder to me of that fact. I had to be more conscientious. Having never touched any of my former Pets, I had no awareness of my strength. Some of my Elite brothers had been known to beat a Pet to death, Furniture too, but I could see now that those incidents could easily have been accidental. The Elites, Blondies in particular, are characterized by their calm, rational temperaments. Even when disposing of a Pet or Furniture for good reason, we do it without any of the emotional turmoil that humans display so readily. Riki was high-strung and foul-tempered and would react with violence if startled. I had startled him that night that I copulated with him, but the violence, inadvertent as it was, had been inflicted by me; thus, it was my mistake to correct.It was a simple fix, really, mere adjustments to be made on my part. Number one: I needed to approach him without appearing as an overt threat. Number two: I needed to reduce the size of my appendage. Pets copulated with other Pets. The size difference among them was negligible in almost every case; proper breeding and genetic selection ensured consistency and quality. Raoul could talk for hours about the importance of standardization, but the bottom line was that even with the slight variations that occur naturally, a stud animal was never so overly endowed that he could injure a sex or breeding partner. This was something that I had never bothered to consider until I saw that I had unintentionally left my Pet in a bad way. Of course, it should have never happened in the first place—Jupiter explicitly prohibited intercourse between Blondie's and their Pets—but what’s done is done, and I had every intention of doing it again, only I would do it right the next time. I would show him what kind of Master I was, one who could tread in filth and remain above it all. I could copulate with a mongrel and raise him up above the best that the Academy had to offer. I would show all of Tanagura that Iason Mink was capable of anything.
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I swear that blond freak show was obsessed with my nipples. I mean, what the fuck was up with that? Guy would play with mine once in a while if he wanted to take things slow, but Iason wouldn’t leave them alone. I should have seen it coming. Iason Mink is totally weird, but he’s also kind of predictable when it comes to all the kinky shit he likes to do in bed. He’d played with my nips that time we hooked up at that love hotel like they were interesting or something; back then, I didn’t even know that having them touched could feel so good. Now, after six months of imprisonment in Eos Tower, all Iason has to do is rub them between his thumb and forefinger and I’m shooting my load into his other hand. He calls my nipples my “good spots.” I have another “good spot” elsewhere on my body, that place inside me that he always seems to find with his finger, with his cock, when he wants to torture me in the best way. It’s so fucking humiliating. It makes me know how far I’ve fallen. When I first came to live with him, he told me, “You are my Pet, Riki. You are Iason Mink’s Pet and I’ll have your body remember it.”Each of those words was like a punch in the face, an insult to my pride. I didn’t care who he was, I was the leader of Bison, or was at least. I didn’t bow down to anyone, be it fellow mongrel or Elite Blondie. How dare he call me a freaking Pet. I was no one’s Pet, least of all his. But no matter how many times I told him off, he’d stand there like a brick wall, as if I were some pathetic snot-nosed brat rather than the gang boss who had ruled over the free fire zone of Ceres. Sometimes he’d narrow his blue eyes to a slit and smirk, sometimes he’d laugh outright at me before proceeding with my ‘training.’At first, he’d just beat me with a cane while my arms were chained. The more he did it, the more I resisted. It was the only thing I could do; I was powerless otherwise. He wasn’t just bigger and taller than me, he was so much physically stronger, too. As an android, he could easily crush my skull in his hands if he wanted to. I don’t know…maybe in the back of my mind I was hoping he’d do just that. At least it would put an end to the mess I had gotten myself into. When he actually fucked me for the first time, though, something happened to me. I felt fear. Up until then, despite all the shit he was putting me through—the ‘disciplining’ and the ‘training’ and even all the pervy stuff with the Furniture—I wasn’t afraid of him. I didn’t think he’d really try to kill me, but as I lay shackled on the bed while he fucked into me, I thought to myself, “I’m going to die. I’m really going to die from this.”The thing was, I wasn’t ready to die. At that moment, I didn’t want to die anymore. Maybe it’s because my choice was being taken away from me; I couldn’t stand to think that my life would be snuffed out in a way that was completely out of my control. My years in Ceres had taught me that life was held by the thinnest thread, especially for a gang leader, but I had always envisioned my own death as something that happened on my own terms, maybe in a knife fight with another opponent, or by my own hand for whatever reason, but at least it would be honorable, it wouldn’t be like this—naked under a Blondie who was murdering me with his massive cock. That night, I saw Iason for what he was: a machine with no soul. He wasn’t just full of himself and domineering, he was something beyond redemption. There was no bargaining with him. He would do as he liked and I was up shit’s creek without a fucking paddle heading straight to hell.Strangely enough, he got weirder. Or maybe ‘unpredictable’ is a better word. At my so-called Pet ‘debut,’ I beat up that dumbass Enif for slapping me, but Iason was actually nice to me afterwards. He seemed almost protective of me in front of the other Elites, and then he didn’t cane me or fuck me in bed later. In fact, he didn’t lay a hand on me at all. Instead, he disappeared completely for a while; Daryl told me ‘Lord Mink’ was off-world on a business trip when I finally bothered to ask him. That Furniture always acted like Iason was the best thing since sliced bread, even though the kid had eyes and could see what a freaking monster he was. Iason made him blow me, for fuck’s sake, and yet Daryl still referred to that pervert as ‘Master’ and ‘Lord’ like he meant it. Is it any wonder I wanted to kick the shit out of the Furniture? Still, with Iason away, Daryl was my only companion in the penthouse and the only person I could talk to. I was so bored out of my skull I actually asked him to play cards with me. He said he would if I promised not to punch him. I guess he wasn’t a bad person even if he followed Iason’s orders like a robot, and playing cards with the Furniture was better than just staring at the ceiling all day long. I didn’t like to look out the windows. I didn’t want to know what I was missing.***When Iason came back weeks later, he caught me jacking off in the shower. All his freakish ‘training’ had turned me into a horny slut, but the need to ‘relieve’ myself was a problem because I had no privacy. Daryl kept close watch over me and the bathroom was the only place where I felt relatively safe from his prying eyes. Of course, he’d seen my dick and everything else a thousand times by now, but can’t a guy just choke his chicken in peace? I didn’t hear Iason come in over the sound of the water running. Besides, I was too busy cumming to notice that someone was standing in the doorway. When I turned off the hot water tap and slid open the glass door, he was waiting in the room with a towel held open for me. Goddamn it, could my life get any worse? Yes, of course it could.“What a good Pet you’re becoming,” he said with a sarcastic smile. “Go fuck yourself.” I grabbed the towel out of his hands, annoyed that he was teasing me, and stomped into my bedroom drying my hair so hard my scalp hurt.“There’s no shame in pleasuring yourself,” Iason told me in his usual soft murmur. The hint of smugness rang loud and clear though. “It’s a Pet’s duty to—”I cut him short, snarling, “Don’t tell me what to do. And don’t call me your fucking Pet. I’m no one’s Pet.”“Oh?” Iason sat down on my bed and calmly folded his gloved hands on his lap. He watched me dry myself while I glared back at him, his piercing eyes roaming over my naked body as if he were exposing my soul. Then he held out one hand to me and asked, though it was really a command, “Let’s try again, shall we?”Those words made me stiffen, not just my spine, but my arms and legs, too. The hairs rose on my entire body, my balls twitched in their sac, my cock which had just been stroked to completion began plumping shamelessly once more. I bit down on my bottom lip so hard I could taste iron, hoping the pain would bring me back to sanity, but it was no good. I was breathing hard, my chest heaving even though I was just standing there like a statue. I heard a loud roaring in my ears. It took me a moment to realize it was the sound of my own blood pumping in my veins, my heart pounding like a drum.“Come, Riki,” came Iason’s low, soft voice. “Come to your Master.” “No, no, no!” I screamed back, but the words never left my throat. Instead, I found myself dropping the towel, then slowly moving towards his outstretched arms until I was held firmly in his embrace. He drew me onto his lap and pressed his cool lips to mine. I could smell the clean scent of his artificial skin, and then I felt his tongue slip into my mouth. It was surprisingly warm and wet, and it curled against my own until I was sucking down on it, moaning and desperate for him. His gloved hands were on me and I reached for them, tugging at them and rasping, “Take them off.” His gloves were made of the softest material, but I wanted to feel his skin on my own. What was wrong with me? How could I be such a cock hungry whore? But fuck it all to hell…I was aching for him. “Iason…take it all off.”He chuckled under his breath and it pissed me off to see the satisfaction on his face. He was winning and I was losing. My pride had gone AWOL and taken my mind with it, but that did nothing to change the fact that I wanted him…on me, in me. I wanted his cock so bad, even though he had torn me apart before, I still wanted his cock moving inside me. I lay on the bed, my limbs free to touch myself, which I did shamelessly while he disrobed. Nothing could prepare me for the shock of seeing him naked. Why? Hadn’t I seen him naked before? It was his cock. It stood engorged and gloriously erect, but it was markedly smaller than the horse dick he had wielded before. It was still large by human standards, but no longer a lethal weapon of destruction.“How come…?” I immediately grasped his boner as soon as he lay down beside me. It was thick and heavy and rigid in my hand, more than substantial, but it made me salivate rather than recoil in terror as it did before. “Why is it smaller?”Iason rested his hand over mine and stroked up the long shaft. “I thought this size might be more pleasing to you. You had difficulty accommodating me before, did you not?” I gaped at him in surprise, the puzzle piece slowly fitting into place, then I half-shrieked, “You can change the size of your dick?”“Of course,” Iason said nonchalantly. “I can change the length and color of my hair as well. Would you like to see?”Before I could answer, the long blond strands had retracted into his skull and darkened to a chestnut brown color, just like that! Now my mouth was really hanging open. Holy shit! What else could this freak do? A murky memory flashed across my mind for a second, a memory from when I was working for Katze as a courier. I had been sent to one of the warehouses to retrieve a package and I happened upon Katze speaking with a tall man dressed in an ordinary suit. I had been unable to see the man’s face since his back was turned to me and the corridor was dimly lit, but he had short brown hair, just like Iason did right now. The recollection filled me with unease; it made me wonder if that man had been Iason sporting a different hairstyle and clothing. If it was him, then what did it mean that he was in disguise and speaking with Katze? What else didn’t I know about Iason, about Katze, about my own fucking life? How stupid was I?My questions were swept aside, though, as Iason willed his hair back to its usual appearance and began kissing me again, deep kisses that sent all my thoughts flying out of my head. I carded my hands through his silken hair, wound the strands around my fingers as he moved his mouth down my body, licking and sucking at my neck, then my nipples, until he took my leaking cock into his mouth and swallowed me down into his throat. I felt his hand gripping the base of my dick, then twisting up the shaft as he swirled his tongue around my crown, laving at the slit before taking me into his mouth again. I arched my back and came. I think I screamed loud enough to wake the dead but I didn’t care, it felt so good.He gave me a few seconds to catch my breath as he knelt between my thighs and stroked his own cock, bringing a clear liquid to the tip and onto his fingers. It wasn’t cum, unless androids had clear jizz, and he gave no indication that he was anywhere near climax. “Open your legs wider.”I didn’t hesitate. I pulled my knees up to my chest and he fingered my hole, just rubbing lightly at my entrance at first, and then pushing inside me. I closed my eyes and clamped my jaws shut to keep from crying out. He was twisting his fingers, moving them slowly in and out of me, and then curling them right up against my “good spot.” My mouth opened and I let loose the most wanton groan despite all my efforts to keep quiet. “Don’t!” I gritted out, my teeth clenched together once more.“Don’t what?” Iason teased. I could hear the triumph in his voice. He knew he had me completely in his thrall and all I could do was writhe on his hand as my cock stood at attention. “Don’t stop…” I begged. The admission of my desire was horrifying. It was proof of my own complicity—wasn’t I asking for it?—but it was out of my mouth and too late to take back. My body was a traitor, such a fucking traitor!“You are my Pet and I am your Master,” Iason repeated. It was his mantra, the words he said over and over again to make me know my place. “You belong to me.”His fingers slipped out and then I felt it, the blunt head of his cock pressing at my entrance, pushing in and opening me up. I gripped the sheets and readied myself for the pain. It hurt, it did, it really did, but then…it didn’t. He was kissing me again, kissing my face, my chest, my shoulder, my neck, light kisses that felt like butterfly wings brushing against my skin. Then he kissed my lips, sliding his tongue into my mouth at the same moment that he sank his cock deep inside me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms around his ribs, and held on tightly as he rocked into me. He was the tide lapping at the shore of my body—steady, rhythmic—sending wave upon wave of pleasure through me, from my toes to the top of my head. I came again, spilling what little seed I had left over my stomach, but Iason didn’t stop. He kept thrusting slowly, smearing my cum onto his own belly and chest, telling me in that hypnotic voice of his, “You’re mine, Riki, you are my Pet.”I lay limp beneath him, his words like knives stabbing me in the heart, his body like a drug inside me. In the morning…in the morning I’d get my shit together, put on my game face and claw my way out of this pit I had dug for myself, but right now, I was no longer Riki the Dark. I was Iason Mink’s Pet. I was someone I didn’t even know.
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I had served as Furniture in Iason Mink’s household for two years before Riki arrived…and all hell broke loose. Up until then, my life in Eos Tower had been busy, peaceful, orderly. Master Iason was stern but clear in his expectations and not unkind. Compared to many of the other Elites, who were almost too enthusiastic in their social climbing and jockeying for status among their own ranks, Lord Mink might appear rather cold and indifferent, but in private he always displayed a thoughtfulness that the others lacked. If he was satisfied with something I had done—if I had prepared a particularly interesting meal, for example—he would reward me with a trinket or a new outfit, as if he actually took the time to consider me.“Furniture should be pleasing to the eye,” he would tell me by way of explanation. And sometimes he would even say, “Well done.” Lest you think I’m a vain idiot, I knew full well that Masters gave their Pets trinkets and new outfits all the time, and I wasn’t so foolish as to interpret his words as praise. Imagine! A Blondie paying a lowly piece of Furniture a compliment! Ha! But those gestures of kindness, however meaningless they were to my Master, were still something I hoarded in the same way the Pets hoarded their Aurora coins; to know that I had performed up to his standards meant that I was fulfilling my purpose, that I was useful. I wanted him to continue telling me “well done” and thinking that I looked nice. Yes, Master Iason liked nice things, tasteful things, but he didn’t flaunt his wealth like others and his penthouse, while appointed with the highest quality this or that, was not ostentatious. He did like to splurge on good wine, though, and often invited his fellow Blondie, Raoul Am, to sample vintages with him.Like Lord Am, my Master kept only Academy-bred Pets of the finest pedigree, a whole series of them in fact. He would acquire one at auction and then send it to the Pet soirees practically every night of the week as proof of its quality. After a month or so, he would tire of it and sell it off without even exercising his right to breed them; then he would acquire a new one and do the same all over again. He showed no interest in the Pets themselves, never laid a gloved hand on them, hardly ever bothered to speak or look at them, but he was turning a tidy profit. Any Pet that could claim Iason Mink as its previous owner was highly desirable and sought after by other Elites, by collectors, by proprietors of exclusive brothels, even ones off-world, such was Lord Mink’s reputation. Some of his peers accused him of being fickle, but who could blame him for taking advantage of the resale value of his Pets? Master Iason was the wealthiest Blondie in Tanagura because he knew how to play the market. Well, he ran the Black Market, too.A year-and-a-half or so into my tenure and for no apparent reason, my Master stopped replacing his Pets, opting to keep none at all for a good four months. His closest colleague, Lord Am, “badgered him” (as Lord Mink put it) to take another Pet, but my Master was deaf to his pleas. I began to worry for my own security. A Furniture’s main duties are to run the household of its Master and tend to his Pet; without a Pet, there was little for me to do. Iason Mink was a very busy Blondie with heavy responsibilities in Tanagura and was seldom home except to sleep in his private quarters, or take a light breakfast in the morning. If there was no work-related reception to attend in the evening, then he would dine out with one of his peers, or he was gone altogether on a business trip for days or weeks at a time.During those months without a Pet, Lord Am often took meals, or drinks at least, at the penthouse with my Master. I suspect he was inviting himself over in order to scold my Master, but I was grateful for Lord Am’s presence. Preparing dinner gave me something to do and I secretly welcomed his nagging. Perhaps it was self-serving on his part—Lord Am was the head of the Academy Pet breeding program, after all—but I was also in agreement with him, which was probably self-serving on my part. My Master’s previous Furniture had been dismissed under strange circumstances and I didn’t want my own imposed idleness to give him reason to send me away also. I was quite naïve back then. Iason was exacting in his standards but that was only right. My Master expected the best because he was the best. Why should he settle for less? Why indeed? When the rumors first circulated that Lord Mink was considering a mongrel for a Pet, I ignored it. It was too ludicrous to take seriously and I knew better. Furniture often spent their free time gossiping amongst themselves. It was our only form of entertainment, to be honest. Pets are by nature extremely narcissistic, demanding and as helpless as babies, and minding them was a round-the-clock duty. It was a Furniture’s responsibility to see to all their needs, and this often meant escorting the newer Pets to the salon for group socialization. The Furniture would congregate in the spacious lounge located inside the salon’s foyer until the Pets were ready to be taken back home. That was pretty much Gossip Central for us. Furniture were, well, furniture. We served a purpose in the same way that a table or a bed served a purpose. We were always present but invisible at the same time. Because of our purely utilitarian function, our Masters spoke freely in our presence, like one would converse in front of a chair, and that meant that there was always an endless river of gossip flowing wherever Furniture were gathered. While we knew to keep our mouths shut at home—and our eyes and ears open instead—once we were among our own kind all that dirt got spilled without shame.“Did you hear that Lord So-and-So spent such-and-such on whatever?” “Did you know that the Ambassador to wherever was snubbed by Lord So-and-So at that party last week?” And so each Furniture would throw his two coins into the pot, hoping that his tidbit was juicy enough to provoke a collective gasp of surprise or dismay. “Did you hear that a mongrel from Ceres is being offered at the upcoming Pet auction?” “Did you know that Lord Mink is the one behind it all?” I myself did not like to gossip, even if I always listened. Iason Mink was powerful. He was revered by many, feared by even more, and I can wholeheartedly say that he elicited both contradictory feelings in me. Gossiping about him was out of the question. He only punished me a few times, and only when I was first brought into his household and was unfamiliar with his way of doing things, but those few times were enough to last me the rest of my life. The beatings weren’t meted out of cruelty, but out of an expectation that things be perfect. So, imagine my shock when those ridiculous rumors proved to be true! What could be less perfect than a Ceres mongrel, a slumdog with unknown paternity? Riki had been raised in Guardian like I was, and that meant that our mothers had given us up as infants. It meant, as par for the course, that no father was named on the birth certificate. It was unheard of for a Blondie, or anyone else for that matter, to purchase a Pet with no papers to prove its pedigree. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what my Master was thinking.And then Iason Mink’s newest Pet was delivered to the penthouse. My boring routine was thrown into chaos. My life, which had been as smooth and flat as the surface of a mirror, was completely shattered by the asteroid storm called Riki the Dark. From the very moment he was led into the penthouse still in shackles—and muzzled!—I knew this was no ordinary Pet. To say he was a handful didn’t even begin to describe the sheer energy it took to keep him under control. It was like trying to bottle lightning, as the saying goes. Gone were my days of peaceful solitude. I had never felt so afraid for my life and yet so alive.***During the very first week, the new Pet bit, punched, and kicked me. He bloodied my lip when he struck me with the plate on which I served his food. Dressing and bathing him was nearly impossible, something I only managed to do after my Master gave me a tasteless, colorless sedative to mix into Riki’s drink. That made him groggy enough for me to put him in the bath and wash his unruly hair, scrub him down so that he was clean. During the day when Iason was at work, it was solely up to me to care for his Pet and I did my best. Iason told me to keep Riki chained to his bed if he continued his violent behavior. “It’s for his own good,” my Master deemed. “I can’t have him destroying my Furniture or himself.”This went on for weeks, months, and I suspect that both my Master and I were both at our wit’s end. I was called upon to participate in Riki’s training. I had never had to do this with Iason’s other Pets, but Riki was wild and not accustomed to the ways of Tanagura. The sight of him defying the most powerful Blondie in all of Amoï was something I will never forget. The sound of his cries as my Master disciplined him was also something I would never forget. Yes, Riki was horrible towards me, but I bore him no ill will. I didn’t hate him. How could I? I was less than a year younger than him, and I still remembered him from my days in Guardian. I never met or spoke to him in person at the orphanage—my dormitory and classrooms were in a separate wing—but I did know him by sight and reputation. He was known by all who were in Guardian. We were all in awe of him, a boy who bowed down to nobody.It didn’t take me long to make the connection between the Riki I had glimpsed in Guardian and the Riki who was Iason Mink’s current Pet, but when the realization dawned on me, I felt my heart break. This proud mongrel was now in chains…and I was called upon by my Master to fellate his Pet on a regular basis. The curses that Riki rained down upon me when I obediently performed the act was something I accepted. Why? Well, it was my duty to do as my Master ordered, it was my duty to care for my Master’s Pet, but beyond that I basked in the fury that was Riki the Dark. We were both lowly humans with no rights living at the mercy of the Elite, and so I felt a strange connection to him, even if the feeling wasn’t mutual. Riki was proud, and his pride was a reminder to me that even a castrated piece of Furniture such as myself could be worth something. Do not misunderstand. I admired Iason Mink. I respected him and was properly fearful of him, but Riki…Riki gave me hope, for what I know not, but he made me want to live, to care for him, to help him in any way possible. Was it foolishness on my part? Perhaps. But it gave real meaning to my life for the first time.After six months or so, Riki began seeking me out for conversation and company. He was no longer violent towards me and so my Master allowed him freedom of movement within the confines of the penthouse. Still, the Pet was literally climbing the walls with frustration and boredom. Though he didn’t bare his teeth towards me like before, he was still a creature who despised captivity and he expressed his unhappiness freely through an appalling slew of curses and vile speech, especially if we were playing cards and he was losing. Mostly, though, he would stalk behind me as I went about my daily household chores, snarling under his breath or shouting insults about the “sick, perverted, slave-owning motherfuckers of whoop-dee-fucking-doo Eos Tower who should all jump off their fancy-schmancy balconies and die!” “Blondies are immortal,” I would tell Riki while I polished the silverware. “Even if one were to jump off a balcony, Jupiter could easily replace any damaged parts.”“Then fuck Jupiter, too! Fuck ‘em all!”Despite all the blasphemous things Riki would say, I could understand his anger. He had grown up free and answering to no one but himself. Here he had no say, no control, and he hated it. “Have you forgotten the filth of the slums?” I would remind Riki now and then, hoping to make him see that not all was bad in Eos Tower. “Don’t you remember going to bed hungry every night? At least here you have—”“One more word, Daryl,” Riki would always interrupt, “and I will rip your fucking head off!”Though Riki’s Pet debut had come and gone months ago, Iason continued to train Riki on his own. He no longer required my assistance and in many ways I was grateful. Riki was strong, lean and muscular, not soft and weak like the Academy-bred Pets, and if it were not for the fact that Lord Mink kept Riki shackled and held tightly in his arms during the early training sessions, I should think Riki would have bloodied me more than a few times. Fellating a raging Pet was a scary thing and something I had never experienced before. Still, the sounds Riki made the first time my Master…and his sorry condition afterwards…these were things I never spoke about to anyone, certainly not to any other Furniture. I knew better than to reveal what must remain private between a Master and his Pet, even though what a Master did with a Pet was normally for public display. That Lord Mink was engaging in something taboo…well, who was I to question it? My Master stood only below Jupiter, and so my allegiance was to him and not to any of the other Elite in Tanagura. If he deemed it necessary to engage in physical intimacy with his Pet, then so be it.Except, I couldn’t help but see Riki’s predicament, both in and out of the bedroom. He was going insane from being caged up day after day with just the Furniture to entertain him. Master Iason did not send Riki to any Pet soirees and he did not seem to recognize the need that Riki had for freedom. As Furniture, we undergo rigorous training to subsume our personal needs and feelings—the very reason we are castrated upon reaching puberty—but, at sixteen, Riki was an intact adult male and half-feral at that. So, yes, I thought I was being helpful when I told Riki about the Pet rings one day. We were playing cards and betting with pieces of candy, candy which Riki was eating as fast as he won them.“I swear, Daryl, I’m going to lose my mind if I stay cooped up here any longer. I’ll slit my own throat if I have to.” I gasped in horror. “No, Master Riki,” I begged, “you mustn’t do that. Lord Mink would be—” “Fuck your precious Lord Mink,” Riki grumbled, “and quit calling me ‘Master’ Riki. It’s just Riki, goddamn it. I told you already, I’m going to punch you in your stupid little face if you keep saying that!”“Yes, sir…Riki.” I bit my lip, thinking. “Perhaps you should ask Master Iason for a Pet ring.” His black eyes lit up with curiosity, so I explained, “Pets who gain the trust of their Master are given a Pet ring: an earring or a necklace or a bracelet. Something pretty to wear to show that they are held in esteem.”Riki snorted and rolled his eyes. “Fuck that shit. I don’t want any piece of dumbass jewelry.”“Ah,” I smiled, “but having a Pet ring also means you are allowed to leave the apartment and go about Eos Tower on your own, within reason of course. You can go to the Pet salon, you can go to the arboretum, you can go shopping, you can—”“Wait a minute!” Riki slammed his fist on the table in excitement. “If that perv gives me a Pet ring, then I can get the hell out of this place?”“The penthouse, yes, you can leave the penthouse and move about certain areas of Eos Tower,” I reiterated, “but you cannot leave—”It was no use explaining the rules because Riki leapt up from the table, grabbed the rest of the candy, and headed off to his own room, hollering, “I’m gonna get me a motherfucking Pet ring! Woo-hoo!”I put the cards away and straightened up the chairs, then I went into the kitchen to prepare dinner. My Master had told me he would be taking his evening meal at home and that Lord Am and his Pet would be joining him. I decided to make a custard for dessert. Iason never asked for dessert if he was eating alone, but I knew that Lord Am had a sweet tooth and so did Riki. If Lord Am was bringing his Pet, then that meant Riki would have company, too, and he normally hated everyone…a sweet dessert might put him in a better mood. Ah…if only trouble could be averted by something as simple as dessert.
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I couldn’t believe it was the Furniture who told me about the Pet rings. That jerk-off android would have kept me locked up in his penthouse until I croaked from old age probably, but I wasn’t going to let him get away with it, nuh uh, not now, not when I knew better thanks to Daryl spilling the beans. Shit, Iason was always lording it over me, acting all high and mighty, calling me his Pet and telling me what to do—sit here, spread your legs, touch yourself—but two could play this game. If Pets got rings and I was his stupid Pet, then where was my freaking ring? He better hand one over, goddamn it, if he wanted to keep calling me his Pet.I took extra care in the shower, made sure I got myself nice and clean, and brushed my teeth without Daryl nagging me. Then I put on a thin, sheer black crop top that showed off my nipples and my abs, and a pair of skimpy black leather thongs. I looked like a total slut. Daryl caught me admiring myself in the full-length mirror in my bedroom but I was long past feeling any kind of shame in front of the Furniture.“That perv is gonna bust a nut so hard over me,” I snickered to him as I posed with my crotch thrust out. Every bump and curve of my junk was clearly visible in that tiny thong. I reached down and rubbed the palm of my hand over myself and grinned even wider as my cock plumped. What used to be obscene was now just plain normal. “He’s gonna cream his pants.” “Master Iason will be pleased,” was Daryl’s more diplomatic assessment. He held out a studded collar and asked, “Shall I put this on for you?”Right. Iason was inviting his freaky friend Raoul Am over for dinner and that meant I would have to wear a collar as a sign of my submission. “I’ll do it myself,” I grumbled and grabbed the collar out of Daryl’s hand and snapped it on around my neck. I knew I should be grateful that Iason didn’t make me wear it all the time, like other Pets did. That’s what Daryl told me and he didn’t seem like the lying sort. If Iason had a guest or visitor to the penthouse, though, then he insisted that I look respectable. Heh, me looking respectable…what a joke. What was so respectable about parading around dressed like a whore? But that was a good thing here in Eos Tower, the home of weirdo Blondies.Daryl fussed with my hair, applying some nice smelling styling gel and I let him because it was easier than arguing with him. Besides, I wanted to look hot for Iason; I was going to ask for that Pet ring after dinner and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression. “Lord Am will be bringing his Pet tonight,” Daryl told me as he arranged my bangs.“Great. I’ll try not to punch the retard in the face.” Daryl’s eyes widened in shock and he pulled his hands away defensively. “M-m…Riki, you wouldn’t hit a girl, would you?” “A girl?” Now I was surprised. “That Blondie’s got a female Pet?” I had assumed this Raoul Am would have a male Pet, just like Iason since those two seemed joined at the hip and head and who knows where else. It was Raoul who was walking with Iason that night in Midas when Iason caught me pickpocketing, it was Raoul who grabbed my ear and declared I was a mongrel with no citizenship, and it was Raoul who always looked at me with disapproval—no, it was more than that; it was contempt—whenever he was over for a drink or a meal. The way Raoul looked at Iason was a totally different thing. You’d think the Blondie was in love with Iason, even though Daryl says that Blondies have no capacity for such a base emotion, but Iason could be weirdly sensitive when he wasn’t acting like a robot, so I figured Raoul was the same. He’d never brought his Pet along with him before, at least not since I've been here, and that made me curious. A female Pet, eh? I’d never talked to a girl my entire life.“Why, yes,” Daryl said, “one that Lord Am bred himself. They say she is the finest one to be produced by the Academy thus far.”“Well, in that case…” I looked back into the mirror and flexed my muscles, curled up both arms and decided that my biceps had lost some of their former oomph. There was nothing to do in the penthouse except eat, sleep, and have sex with my…with Iason. It was world’s apart from my life in Ceres, where running and fighting for my life kept me firm. I flexed my biceps again, disgusted by my own vanity. “Do you think I look…soft?”“Soft?” asked Daryl.“My muscles,” I answered back, “do they look hard or soft?” Daryl was wearing his usual Furniture outfit—a sleeveless tunic with loose trousers—and his arms were like toothpicks hanging at his sides. Maybe Daryl wasn’t the best judge of muscles. Then again, he served Iason and Iason was ripped, so yeah, Daryl had definitely seen his fill of muscles. “Well?” I prodded when he just stood there biting his lower lip, brows scrunched together.“Um…” Daryl hesitated, “a Pet is supposed to be soft.”“Oh, fuck me!” I pounded my fist into the palm of my other hand. “You’d think all that sex…that’s it. Tomorrow I’m doing a hundred push-ups and a hundred sit-ups twice a day.”“That’s not what I meant!” he protested. “You didn’t let me finish.” I twirled a finger in the air and he continued explaining, “You’re not like a typical Pet. You’re not soft and weak, like a Pet should be…” His voice trailed off because we both realized that he was telling me I didn’t meet the minimum standards of a run-of-the-mill Pet in Eos Tower. His pale face grew even paler, his childish features crumpling as I walked up to him and put my hand on his bony shoulder.“Daryl,” I told him as he flinched under my touch, “I know I suck as a Pet. Thanks for the compliment.” ***We had some kind of stew that night, made with real meat of course, something that supposedly paired with the wine Iason and Raoul were drinking out in the dining room. I ate in the kitchen with Daryl, as usual, only things were kind of awkward because Raoul’s Pet was eating in the kitchen with us. I almost died when I saw that she wore an outfit as outrageously slutty as mine. I also noticed that she wore a pair of earrings set with emeralds in a starburst pattern, probably to match the green of her large round eyes. I wondered if those earrings served as her Pet ring. If that was the case, then Raoul didn’t spare any expense on her. Emeralds were extraordinarily rare and could only be purchased from another owner for an exorbitant price since the mining of that gemstone had collapsed eons ago. What was currently in existence was all there was to be had. That Raoul…talk about overkill, but it made me feel more than a little pissed off at Iason. That bastard hadn’t even given me a Pet ring made out of a fucking tin can, and he was even more loaded than Raoul! I knew this because Daryl had told me that Iason was the richest Blondie in all of Tanagura. That cheapskate!Raoul’s Pet, though, was definitely high-end. Even I could see that. Her skin was flawless, almost translucent, it was so smooth and fair. My own dark ruddy complexion looked like mud next to hers. She had perfect little teeth and a bow-shaped mouth with plump lips. I couldn’t help but wonder what they would feel like to kiss. Would they be like soft pillows? Iason’s lips were thin and always cool. Guy’s lips were always warm and slightly chapped. My own? I’d never thought much about myself, how I must feel to someone else. I’d taken it for granted that Guy wanted me, liked to have sex with me as much as I liked it with him. And Iason, well, he was just bizarre; I couldn’t figure him out if I tried. And this female Pet who was so small and perfect…what must she think about a dirty slumdog like me? A whole lot, apparently.Even though she had been silent the entire time she had sat on the floor next to Raoul in the living room, while I had to do the same for Iason—I even sat on my ass with my legs spread so Iason could feel proud of me, it was so fucking gross—as soon as she was sent into the kitchen with me and Daryl she wouldn’t stop talking. “Hi, my name is Mimea,” is the first thing she blurted out once the door to the kitchen swung shut. “I like what you’re wearing. We could be twins!”She had the sing-song voice of a very young girl, or what I imagine would be a young girl. At Guardian, the girls were kept in a separate wing for the most part, but you could see and hear them at mealtimes when they ate in the private room next to the cafeteria. Then, if you listened above the noise of the boys in the main room, you might hear them chattering like birds. It always sounded like they were singing, their voices were so thin and high. This Mimea had a voice like that, and she kept warbling and chirping about how lucky I am to live in the penthouse of Lord Mink and maybe I could show her my room later on because her own Master Lord Am had promised her that no other Pet in Eos Tower had a nicer room than hers but she wanted to see for herself because everyone knew that Lord Mink was of higher rank than Lord Am and didn’t that mean that Lord Mink’s Pet would also have a nicer room than she did? Plus, all the other Pets were dying to know how an inbred mongrel was managing to live with Tanagura’s top Blondie: was he even housebroken? Did he know how to use a knife and fork? Riki had made such a terrible impression in public months ago and the gossip was rampant about how uncivilized he was. “He probably defecates on the floor!” someone had said at the salon and then everyone else had fallen to giggles.This was revealed by Mimea within the five minutes it took for Daryl to serve us our food at the kitchen counter. Then Mimea took a breath and told me, still all friendly-like, “I saw you at your Pet debut.”Well, that was news to me. “I don’t remember seeing you,” I said in return, and it was the truth. I didn’t recognize anyone besides Iason and Raoul at that perverted circus and I was too busy being the target of dirty looks and insults before I got into that fight with what’s-his-face. I had nothing in common with those Pets and I didn’t think I’d ever have to rub shoulders with them again anyway. In Ceres, every face is memorized because you never knew if they’d be your friend or foe down the road, but I’d barely looked at these whining creatures; I didn’t want them as friends and they weren’t even worthy of being enemies. Mimea’s beaming face turned dark at my comment, though, and Daryl, who was standing behind her at another counter plating up the next course to bring to the dining room was rolling his eyes at me like I had put my foot in my mouth and swallowed it whole.“The other Pets said you looked like something that crawled out of the sewer,” Mimea declared in a hurt tone, “but I said you looked…special.”“Special?” I snorted, laughing. “Yeah, I’m special alright. Hey, Daryl, why don’t you tell Mimea here how I get all sorts of special treatment from my horny ass Master?” Mimea literally gasped an inward shriek as Daryl shot me a furious scowl, which made me decide not to describe all the dirty things I did with Iason because Daryl never showed any extreme emotions, not even during those times when I was beating the crap out of him. “Sheesh, just kidding,” I backpedaled. “Can’t girls take a joke?”“Was…?” Mimea fanned herself with her delicate hands, flapping them like wings at her blushing face. “I’ve never heard a joke like that. We don’t use that kind of language in the salon.”“Really?” I stared at her perky tits barely hidden behind a strappy top and the bandage-sized thong she was wearing to cover a pussy I’d never seen in real life, only in porn videos. “You’d think ‘horny’ and ‘ass’ would be part of your Pet vocabulary.”“We don’t use those words when speaking of our Masters!” she stated, her cheeks turning a deeper shade of red.Daryl was practically hyperventilating over this conversation and took refuge by bringing more dishes to the dining room. As he opened the kitchen door, Mimea and I shut our mouths; we could hear Iason and Raoul talking about who was breeding which Pets and the fees that should be charged. When the door swung closed, our eyes met and for some reason, we both burst out laughing. I don’t know why. There was nothing funny going on. Maybe it was just a break in the tension between us or something, but there it was. We ate our stew in silence, grinning like idiots, but when Daryl came back into the kitchen carrying some empty plates and wearing the same mortified expression, Mimea and I were back to roaring with laughter. “I like you, Riki,” Mimea said.She caught me staring at her tits again and, instead of hiding them, she sat up straighter so I could get a better look at them. I really wanted to put my hands on them, squeeze them, play with them. Being so near to a girl was wild and she was really cute, even if she was annoying and talked too much. I wasn’t sure if she was flirting with me or what, I mean, I had no experience with this kind of stuff. In Ceres, guys hooked up with other guys without ceremony. We might ask, “Wanna fuck?” or maybe skip the asking part altogether and just move on to the banging with no words exchanged. We sure as hell didn’t say shit like, “I like you” unless the intention was to become pairing partners. Holy crap, this boy-girl business was confusing, so I played it cool and grunted with a shrug, “Whatever.” To me, that sounded non-committal. I was flattered that she said something as silly as, “I like you, Riki,” but I wasn’t stupid enough to think anything would come of it. As Iason was so fond of drilling into my head while he was drilling my ass, I was his Pet and he didn’t seem like the sharing type. Still, it wasn’t so bad meeting another soul I could talk to, even if she did most of the talking, and if I could talk Iason into giving me one of those Pet rings, then I might actually have one person who was willing to be my friend at this so-called Pet salon. I wouldn’t be stuck in the penthouse all day getting on Daryl’s nerves, so this would be a win-win all around. Yep. A win-win all around.
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I would have to reward Daryl with a new outfit, perhaps an embroidered tunic with satin piping. The evening meal had gone so well, but even before that my Furniture had managed to have Riki presentable. No, Riki was beautiful: his dark hair shiny and smelling divine, every fine cut and curve of his lean body accentuated in black leather, studded collar encircling his slender neck. Even Raoul was rendered speechless at first. My brother was eager to show off his Mimea next to Riki, as if to highlight the difference between a polished diamond and a lump of coal, but my Riki dazzled just as brightly sitting at my feet, his thighs spread like a good and proper Pet. The temptation to kiss him in front of Raoul and his latest triumph of genetic engineering was overwhelming, but I drank my wine instead and promised myself that I would slake my real thirst afterwards. That our two Pets were silently eyeing each other escaped neither my nor Raoul's attention. In fact, we were both curious as to how an Academy-bred Pet would fare against my mongrel in close quarters. I had bragged to Raoul earlier that Riki could easily surpass a Stella-class Pet in terms of pride, except that Riki had the fiery temperament to back it up whereas a Stella-class, though rare and much dearer in cost, would surely cower if threatened. The other Pets at Riki’s debut had behaved in typical tiresome Pet fashion: bold and arrogant when ganged together but utterly weak and helpless when confronted with Riki’s true ferocity. This Mimea, though, was looking at Riki with overt interest, her pupils dilated and skin flushed. Raoul’s annoyance over this was something I couldn’t let pass. I had to tease him about it over dinner.“It appears that my non-pedigreed mongrel is irresistible even to the Academy’s finest Pet," I declared before taking another bite of stew. Raoul’s green irises sparking with irritation made everything taste delicious.“A feral piece of trash like that is rife with base pheromones. It’s practically sewage pouring out of an open pipe. Yes, that’s all it is,” Raoul insisted, “a purely chemical reaction. Perhaps it is time we eradicated such a primitive response. I’m certain I can produce breeds that are influenced by tactile stimuli only.” I laughed heartily at that. “Then you better make sure they are blind, and perhaps deaf and dumb, too, although I’m not sure they can be any dumber than they are already.” “Iason!” Raoul raised his voice. It was clear he was genuinely disgusted with me.“Now, now, brother,” I soothed. “I didn’t mean to offend. In no way am I questioning your genius abilities.”“Pfff," huffed Raoul, pouting. “You are horrible sometimes.” “I know, Raoul, and that’s why you adore me so much.” When Daryl brought custard out for dessert, Raoul was so pleased it made him forgive my earlier assault on his own pride. What a child he could be with his love of sweets, just like Riki! I reached over and gave his gloved hand a squeeze, which he returned with a charming smile.“You are a beauty,” I told Raoul. My brother truly was stunning in looks, but the one I wanted in my arms that night was eating his custard in the kitchen. I could hear Riki’s voice now and then, his snarky voice interrupting the twittering of Raoul’s Pet, and once again I had to fight the urge to get up from my seat at the table and go ravish him in the kitchen. The sight of Raoul enjoying his dessert, the silver spoon brought to his lips with grace, was a good distraction. I gave him a kiss on the cheek.“What have I done to deserve such a treat?” asked Raoul. He passed the pink tip of his tongue briefly across his upper lip, savoring the sweetness of the custard.Daryl came into the dining room carrying an open bottle of Sauterne. I signaled for him to fill our glasses with the dessert wine. “Well done, Daryl.” And then I turned back to Raoul and said, “You need do nothing but be my brother. My favorite brother.” I raised my glass to him, a soft and steady flutter in my chest. “Just that, and I am happy.” ***Of course, my elation that night was only partly due to the pleasant meal with Raoul. In the six months I’d had Riki as my Pet, I’d received nothing but criticism from my fellow Blondies, Raoul included, although Raoul was alone in standing by my side, too. I knew full well that his goal, even in expressing his disagreement with my actions so steadfastly, was to protect me from the censure of my peers and of Jupiter especially. On the surface of my consciousness, it made sense to follow the status quo, but underneath…I found myself walking a different path, a path that was new and unfamiliar. I was doing things that were strangely out of my control, irrational even. How could this be? Was this a natural step in my evolution or had something gone terribly wrong with my programming? All I knew for certain was that Riki was the key to this change in me. And I liked it.Riki was changing, too, and I liked that even more. After Raoul left for the night with Mimea in tow, I found Riki waiting for me in his bed, naked and willing. This was new. Normally, he would put up a fight, call me offensive names as a prelude to our coupling.“What? No foreplay?” I teased. A scowl leapt across his face instantly, telling me that Riki the Dark was still very much alive and kicking. “Very well, then.” I slowly stripped off my clothes. His eyes were like obsidian in the low light of the room. They were on me, watching, and though we were not even touching, I could feel his soul cradled inside my chest, what could only be joy driving me to the edge of sanity. “Come, Riki. Serve your Master.” I stood by the bed and my beautiful Riki obeyed, on his hands and knees as he took my cock into his wet mouth. I made myself small enough for him to swallow whole without choking, small enough for me to put him on his back and penetrate him with just a shadow of pain. “You are my Pet, Riki.” I ran my thumbs across his nipples, pinched them, licked them, bit gently along his neck and shoulder, leaving behind a trail of red welts, proof of my ownership. “You are Iason Mink’s Pet and I am your Master.”I let his moans and cries set the rhythm of my thrusts, I let that sweet music swell my cock until he was clawing at my back, shouting, “Unggh…fuck! So big! Fuck! Iason!” I had him come once, twice, three times before his pleading moved me to finish for the night. When I pulled out at last, the sheets were a mess. I called for Daryl to clean us up, and then I picked Riki up and carried him to my own room.“You’ll sleep here with me,” I ordered. Another first. Imagine my happy surprise when he didn’t resist, merely rolled over and snuggled against me. What he said next shocked me. “I want a Pet ring,” he told me. “Daryl says all good Pets get a Pet ring. Iason?” His voice became quieter. “Wasn’t I a good Pet tonight?” It was impossible to suppress the laughter. “Oh ho?” I chuckled. “After all this time, you’re suddenly eager to bind us together?”“Fuck you, asshole!” Riki snarled, hackles up. He punched my chest with his balled up fist, tickling me and making me laugh harder. “You jerk! When are you going to give me a goddamn Pet ring? You can’t keep me a prisoner here forever!”“I can’t?” I grabbed his wrists and pinned him down easily while he continued to kick and buck and squirm beneath the weight of my body. “I can do anything I like, Riki. I am Iason Mink. I am your Master. Don’t ever forget that.” I stared down into his flashing eyes, his lips curled into an angry grimace. So lovely. “Still…” I loosened my grip and felt his body go slack again, and when he let me caress his cheek, I told him, “I’ll consider it.” Indeed, he had behaved himself well that night, he had made me proud of him in front of Raoul. “If you want a Pet ring, if you continue to prove yourself to me, then you shall have one.”I didn’t know what it was exactly that Daryl had said to Riki, but apparently my Furniture had convinced Riki that he should accept my complete control over him. This was something I never expected Riki to comply with but my mongrel was unpredictable in so many ways. He was a mystery I had yet to solve, and I would understand him no matter the cost or consequence.
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Have you ever wished you could go back in time just so you could punch the shit out of your stupid teenage self? I still can’t believe all the retarded things I did out of anger, out of spite, out of sheer idiotic pride, but my sixteen-year-old self was hopeless. I thought I could play with fire and not get burned. Man, was I wrong. I was such a dumbass.I was so fucking proud of myself that night when I put out like a whore for Iason after dinner with Raoul’s Pet, Mimea. She was pretty and cute and she talked to me without making me feel like I was a piece of crap. Most of all, she was a girl. Holy hell! How many slumdogs could claim to have actually talked to a girl! And not only that, she smiled at me, laughed at my lame jokes and even wanted to see my room. There was nothing special about my room—it held just a big comfy bed and a table next to it—but she seemed to think that my room was better than any other Pet’s room in all of Eos Tower. Weird, but I’d take weird from a girl any day. The way she gushed over how ‘spacious’ it was and how the sheets were top of the line in ‘thread count’ made me wonder if these things actually meant something. It wasn’t the first time I felt like an ignorant rube. I mean, I was from the slums and nothing more than walking trash in Eos Tower. What did I know about ‘thread count’ and the square footage of bedrooms? We were lucky to have flea bitten blankets in Ceres. Even the little apartment that I rented when I worked as a courier for Katze—a luxury at the time—was a total shithole compared to Iason’s penthouse. You’d think I’d realize that I was in a much better place now and that I would play it smart, but no.“I’ll be getting a Pet ring soon,” I told her. I don’t know why I blurted that out; I hadn't even asked for one yet. Maybe I wanted to brag a little. She was being so nice to me, batting her long eyelashes and giggling at everything I said, ooh-ing and aah-ing about my kickass bedroom. If that impressed her, then who knows how she’d moon over me once I was wearing a Pet ring even fancier than her emerald earrings. Then she’d really think I was hot shit. “We could hang out at, uh, that Pet salon place.” I had no idea what this Pet salon was except she had mentioned it several times over dinner, that she was there practically every day, and Daryl had talked about it too. I imagined a mirrored, light-filled room with a bunch of Pets getting their hair and nails done. That wasn’t my thing—we didn’t even have salons in Ceres; Guy always trimmed my hair for me with his switchblade—but if it meant spending a little time with Mimea, then I’d be okay getting a freaking manicure. “Oh, yes!” she squealed, clutching my biceps in her soft little hands. “We can have so much fun together!”Her eyes were so big and round and green—unlike Iason’s cold blue irises—her cheeks so pink and her lips so red. She smelled like flowers. There was a large greenhouse at Guardian where the Mothers and Sisters grew all sorts of plants. I had snuck in there with Guy one night and we had wandered up and down the aisles sniffing all the different blooms. Mimea smelled like this one particular flower. I think it was called a peony. Anyway, she was standing so close to me our bodies were touching and my head was just buzzing with a million things I wanted to do with her, but mostly I wanted to kiss her.So that night when Iason came into my room, I was primed and pumped, so horny I stroked my cock without him even ordering me to play with myself. I spread my legs and wriggled my ass, rode his dick so long and hard I nutted three times before I ran out of juice. And when he said he’d ‘consider’ my request for a Pet ring, I knew I had him wrapped around my little finger. I had to hide my face in his armpit so he wouldn’t see me grinning. A week later, I got my wish. And, boy, did I regret it.I was asleep when Iason came into my room and woke me up when he put his hands on me. I thought he wanted to fuck me, so I just laid there and let him rearrange my limbs. By now I knew it was useless to fight a Blondie, especially if that Blondie was Iason Mink and he was in the mood to play with my body. I didn’t pay too much attention to what he was doing. I had been drinking earlier that night and didn’t really care about anything except getting back to sleep and dreaming about Mimea’s tits. I figured if he wanted to stick his cock into me, then so be it. I would let him have his way and then maybe he’d leave me alone for the next day or two. He hadn’t touched me since that night when he’d had dinner with his friend Raoul, that same night I had met Mimea. By the time I was aware, awake enough to know what was going on, he had slipped a cold metal ring around the base of my cock.“Here is your Pet ring, Riki,” he said, his voice low and soft. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”I bolted upright in bed and looked down at myself, looked down at my cock, still half-rigid with visions of Mimea’s firm breasts jiggling around in my brain, and sucked in a horrified breath. “Wh-what is this?” I fingered it, felt the firmness of the metal, went to pull it off and then gasped when it tightened uncomfortably. I went limp in two seconds, terror flooding through me like ice water as I tried to pull the ring off of my dick. It only tightened further! “Get it off me! Fuck! Get it off me!”“Calm down, Riki,” Iason ordered. “You’ll only hurt yourself.” He gripped my wrist and whispered into my ear, “I am the only one who can remove the ring now. If you try to take it off, you will only damage yourself.” He lifted my chin between his gloved thumb and forefinger so I was forced to look into his steely blue eyes. “This D-type Pet ring is the only kind suitable for a mongrel from Ceres.”“You motherfucker!” I shouted. “What are you doing to me?” “Only what you wanted, Riki. Remember? You are the one who asked for it.” “I…this…this isn’t what I asked for!” I pulled desperately on the ring again. It wouldn’t budge.And then Iason slapped me. He slapped me hard across the face. It stung like hell. I wasn’t expecting it. It had been a while since he had punished me and I hadn’t even done anything wrong. Okay, I had just called him ‘motherfucker’ but that wasn’t exactly new. The slap, though…it made me hate him all over again! It brought up all my despair and made me realize I had been fooling myself for some time now. I had let myself accept his touch, his…kisses. I had let myself believe it felt good, so good. And now we were back to square one. Iason was the same smug, domineering asshole who had caught me pickpocketing and I was being put in my place like I was nothing!“Get it off me!” I screamed. I tugged even harder to no avail.He hit me again, so hard I was seeing stars in front of my face. It took a moment for my vision to clear, but then I saw him lift his hand and twist a ring on his finger and a jolt of unimaginable pain shot through me from the base of my cock, up my spine and through the top of my skull as if someone had impaled me on a red hot spike. I cried out in agony. “Do you feel that, Riki?” Iason asked. “Do you know what that is?” I was writhing on the bed, twisting and turning and clutching my cock, squeezing it between both of my fists, the breath knocked out of me. “Stop it! Make it stop!”“That is me, your Master, holding you in the palm of my hand,” Iason told me. “Are you ready to be a good Pet now, Riki?”All I could do was pant in pain, curled into a tight ball. “Please…Iason…please…” And then the pain was gone, and in its place was the most soothing warmth, a steady pulse of pleasure that rose in intensity until I was gasping once more, except this time it felt too good to be real. “Iason…Iason…”“What, Riki?”I felt Iason’s body next to me, big and firm, and I reached out and clutched his robe. The ring at the base of my cock was vibrating and sending the most intense waves of aching sensation from my balls to my fingertips and toes. “Do me. Fuck me.” I spread my legs, pulling them up to my chest and offering myself to him. I had no control over myself. All I knew was that I wanted him, I wanted him deep inside me, filling me up. “Make me cum. Iason. Make me cum!”He didn’t use his fingers on me; I couldn't wait for that. I got on my knees, ass in the air, my own hands spreading my cheeks apart for him, and when he shoved his cock into me it hurt so good I screamed at the top of my lungs.“Do me like the first time!” I begged. I gripped my cock, the pulsing of the ring running up my thumb and into my entire arm as I stroked myself. I felt Iason’s dick swell inside me, so big I thought I would burst. I was out of my mind in pain and in pleasure. “Don’t stop. I…I…”I didn’t know what I was saying. I love you? I hate you? Which one was it? And why did it feel so good and bad at the same time? *** The next evening, Iason told me that I could go to the Pet salon. “Pet salon?” I asked, feigning ignorance. “I don’t need a haircut.”He laughed into his glass of wine. I was sitting in his lap—he had ordered me to, as usual—my ass still sore as all heck, and he was fondling my dick and kissing my neck while the ring around my cock pulsed gently.“You have a Pet ring now. You can go to the Pet salon to socialize. Daryl can bring you there.”I huffed out an angry breath, playing coy. The truth was, I had every intention of meeting Mimea there. Iason, though, didn’t need to know that. He was a controlling bastard and I didn’t want him to interfere with my life any more than he had done already. “What if I don’t want to go?” I asked, acting all disinterested. “Those Pets at my stupid ‘debut’ all hated on me. Why would I want to hang out with the likes of those shitheads?” “Now, now, Riki. They’ve never seen anything like you. Maybe you could teach them a thing or two, eh, Riki? Maybe you could show them what a mongrel is made of.” Yeah, I thought. I’ll show them.When the time came, though, I found out that I had to wear my freaking collar and be led on a leash by Daryl. Fuck! Talk about humiliating!“Why don’t you or Iason ever tell me what’s really what?” I complained as Daryl walked me off the elevator. Then I dragged him along behind me as I stomped through the mezzanine. The signage told me that the Pet salon was to my right. “Get your ass moving!” I was anxious to know if Mimea would really be there or if she was just stringing me along. All around me people were giving me dirty looks. “What’s the matter?” I sneered and then grabbed my crotch. “You want some of this?”“Riki, please behave,” Daryl pleaded beside me. He tugged on the leash to get my attention. “If you don’t behave, I’ll have to take you back to the penthouse straight away.” I wanted to punch him in the face, but he looked genuinely worried. “Fine. Whatever. Should I kiss your ass while I’m at it?”“Just follow along quietly,” Daryl said in a whisper, “and stop drawing attention to yourself.”“How am I supposed to not draw attention to myself?” I asked. “I mean, look at me.” Daryl had dressed me in a sheer outfit: a black mesh top with a matching pair of shorts, my nipples and junk visible behind the flimsy fabric. Even the ring around my cock was visible. “I’d be less naked if I weren’t wearing anything!”“You don’t understand, Riki,” Daryl explained. “A Pet must always don proper attire, especially in public, and that attire must always accentuate a Pet’s assets.”“Assets,” I snorted. “Yeah. Right.” I fondled myself and got a nice chub going. “How’s that? Am I accentuating my assets properly?” I had meant to get a rise out of Daryl but then I noticed people nodding with approval at my obscene display and I stopped stroking myself through my shorts. “What the hell? Is everyone here a pervert? It’s not just Iason?”Daryl merely sighed and stopped in front of a neon lit doorway. “Thank Jupiter, we’re here.” He waved his hand with a flourish. “This is the Pet salon,” he announced as he unclipped the leash from my collar. “You go inside and make friends with the other Pets. I’ll wait for you here in the front room with the other Furniture. Go on now, Riki. And remember: no hitting or kicking or biting.” I rolled my eyes at him and ambled through the door towards the sound of music and chatter. My Pet ‘debut’ had been a joke and my expectations for this Pet salon weren’t exactly high, but as long as Mimea was there, I figured it would be worth a shot. Daryl had told me that I was allowed to socialize with any of the other Pets in the salon and that I could order food and drinks from the open bar, too. We didn’t have this kind of free shit in Ceres, that was for sure. I made my way down the hallway and into a large open room in the back. The salon turned out to be a club, a very fancy schmancy club with posh furniture and low mood lighting and music piped through hidden speakers. There was a fully stocked bar with six Furniture serving drinks and more Furniture tending to the Pets who wanted food. And Daryl hadn’t been wrong to dress me in such a revealing outfit because all the other Pets were just as or even more scantily clad. I sauntered over to the bar and ordered a drink, sipped it slowly while I scanned the room.“What a bunch of brats,” I mumbled under my breath. They were all young boys and girls, barely pubescent. I felt like an old man at sixteen. Then one of them—a blue-haired, grey-eyed Pet wearing a diamond-studded collar and three gold bracelets—came up to me. He was staring at my neck and my chest, looking first with curiosity, and then in shock. Then he scampered off to a group of his pals and they began talking among themselves, then shooting me more looks, then they fanned out across the room like a horde of mice. “Weirdos.” It was then that I saw Mimea, who was sitting all the way in a back corner on a large sofa with some other Pets. The blue-haired boy who had approached me at the bar was whispering something into her ear. She turned her head, searching the room until her eyes met mine. I waved at her and, after a pause of recognition, she waved back and headed towards me.“You made it!” she smiled, scooting onto the stool next to me at the bar. “I was wondering if you’d show up.” “Yeah, I’m here,” I smiled back, more than a little relieved. “Are they all so bizarre?” “Who?” “Them.” I waved my hand at the entire room. “What’s with them? They’re all acting like I have three heads or something.”“Three heads?” “Yeah, like there’s something wrong with me.” “Oh…well…” She sipped on her acid green colored cocktail, glancing furtively at my neck, and said, “It’s the love bites…”“Huh?” I touched my neck and then I grimaced. “That…what of it? You’ve got them, too.” I slugged down my drink and ordered another.“Yes, but, you haven’t been to any of the Pet soirees.” “Soirees?”“The sex parties. You haven’t been to any.”Sheesh. Sex parties? “So what? I get plenty of sex as it is. I don’t need to go to any soirees for that.”Mimea’s perky little mouth fell open, her eyes widened into saucers. “You mean…those love bites are from…your Master?”“Yeah, who else?” That really left her speechless. “What? Doesn’t your Master Raoul fuck you?”“I…I…”And that’s when she fainted. Yep. She literally blacked out, her little body crumpling as I caught her in my arms before she hit the floor. I picked her up—she was light as a feather—and carried her over to one of the sofas and laid her down. All around me a murmur arose. At first, I was too worried about Mimea to pay attention to what was being said, but then I began to hear people saying shit like, “What did he do to her?” and “Can’t trust a mongrel” and “Did he infect her with his slum germs?” They were obviously blaming me for whatever had happened to her and, I don’t know, maybe they were right. Maybe what I said had upset her so much that she passed out. Maybe girls were real delicate that way and me asking her if Raoul fucked her was too rude for her female ears. She was breathing just fine so I decided to cut my losses and head out before they started calling for my head. Not that I was worried about getting beaten up—I could easily defend myself with one arm tied behind my back with this sorry bunch of losers—but this whole encounter was bumming me out. I stalked out of there to the sound of hisses, I kid you not, and found Daryl waiting for me in the front room just as he said he would.“Are you ready to leave so soon?” he asked.I let him clip the leash back onto my collar and trudged back out to the mezzanine with him following beside me. “I hate this place,” I muttered.“Did something happen in there?” Daryl prodded with concern. “Did you get into a fight?”“No. Just take me back to the penthouse.”What the hell was wrong with everyone here? Nothing made sense to me. I didn’t ask to be here, but here I was. My life was so fucked up. Every time I thought I’d figured it out, it took a nosedive into some other trash heap. When I was living in Ceres, escaping it seemed the solution. To get away from the slums was a mark of success, but now I was beginning to understand why the few who did manage to escape would always return completely broken. I didn’t want that to be me, but there was no freedom in Tanagura, and Eos Tower was its shiny prison. If I was going to be stuck here, then I needed to find something for myself, I needed to find my own way and do my own thing or else I was going to fucking die. Maybe I’d pinned too much hope on meeting Mimea and being friends with her. Maybe she wasn’t part of the solution. Or maybe I was feeling so down because I had blown my first—maybe my only—chance with being close to another human being. As soon as we got back to the penthouse I raided Iason’s liquor cabinet, drank an entire bottle of sake in my bed. I missed Guy so bad. I hadn’t thought of him lately, but that afternoon I laid there drunk and maudlin, wishing for the shitty life I had had before. Pathetic.
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I was at my work console in Eos Tower, finally back in Tanagura after six months of constant travel to various cities, both on Amoï and off-planet. The Black Market trade was booming and I was never in one place for long, be it overseeing quality control at a lab that processed synthetic drugs or at a conference table negotiating contracts for the shipment of organs and Pets. It was mentally exhausting even if my body felt none of the weariness. Normally, upon return to Eos Tower and especially after such an extended period of time away, I would report to the room reserved for Blondies, rather than to my own work office, in order to download all the data that had accumulated in my brain. Jupiter expected her sons to clear their cache of information on a regular basis—every month or so was standard protocol—but I had been busy with travel and not overly concerned about my laxness. I knew she would be pleased with what I had accomplished in the interim, despite the lag in sharing data.There were other reasons I was dragging my feet. The delay gave me opportunity to put even more space between me and Riki. I had given him his Pet ring before my duties took me away from him, and thus I had no worries of him escaping in my absence, but the curiosity, the increasingly overwhelming need to be with my Pet and to explore greater and deeper connection with him was something that I knew I should hide from my Creator. But Jupiter would see everything, know everything once my mind was ‘freed’ in the room. She would access everything that I had experienced since the previous data download, so hiding was not an option, and there was nothing ‘freeing’ about having all your secrets exposed. The only thing I could do was distance myself from those experiences, let them fade through time so that the feelings were dull rather than acute and I could overlay them with more recent things, things like reprimanding an employee who had violated procedure, or the long, boring hours sitting at a conference table staring at some pencil-pusher trying to squeeze one extra credit out of the deal. It wasn’t quite like wearing a mask—Jupiter wasn’t so easily fooled—but if I cluttered my mind with enough idiotic memories, busied myself with enough mundane tasks, and stayed away from Riki until the ache in my artificial heart ceased to throb so painfully, then perhaps she would overlook my transgressions.So I was at my terminal in my work office in Eos Tower instead of playing with my Pet in the penthouse as I desired so much. If I had any hope of escaping another reprimand from Jupiter, then sacrifices had to be made on my part. I had already called Daryl too many times to make sure that Riki was behaving himself, and my Furniture had assured me that Riki was finally settling down. During the entire six months of my frequent absences, Riki had not complained to him even once about being a Pet or a prisoner. It set my mind at ease and made it bearable to not rush to the penthouse and have my way with him. I had done that once before and Jupiter had given me a slap on the wrist that time; it would be suicide to rub it in her face by doing it over and over, choosing to visit with my Pet before laying myself bare to my Maker, in a sense placing Riki on a higher pedestal than Jupiter. I needed to remain steadfast, I needed to stay away from him until I was able to sit in that chair and allow Jupiter to probe into my brain. Once she had satisfied her own curiosity, then and only then would I see my Riki and take him in my arms. Raoul, though, wasn’t making things easy for me. He stood at my side, his gloved hand on my shoulder as he watched my fingers fly over the keyboard. I didn’t mind that he was reading what I was writing, nor what he said to me by way of unsolicited commentary.“You’re as unforgiving as always,” Raoul murmured as he read my scathing email.I stopped typing momentarily. “Is that a rebuke?”“No,” he replied. “I wouldn’t think of telling you how to do your job.”“Good," I began typing again, "because that moron Kiira cost me a 50% loss of profit at A-C Troy last month.” Though I kept my eyes on the screen, I could literally feel Raoul cringing. Kiira was his trainee whose neglect had resulted in a biohazard disaster at the lab, causing the manufacture of a highly valuable strain of weaponized bacteria to grind to a halt. “I’ll have Ringa over in Raashi take over production for now.”“You might as well ask Ringa not to sleep,” grumbled Raoul. “There’s no sense in putting up with incompetent fools like Kiira,” I shot back. That extra dig elicited another irritated huff from Raoul, which he tried to hide behind a fake cough. This was getting to be amusing, so I poked my brother in the proverbial eye once more. “I’ll send Katze to make sure the transition goes smoothly.”Now he groaned openly. “You and your disgraced Furniture! Must you drag your good name and the reputation of Eos through the mud by employing such a shady character?” “Why shouldn’t I use him?” I swiveled in my seat to look up at Raoul’s face. He was wearing a scowl. “If I find someone with talent, with abilities, then I will use him to the full extent no matter who or what he is. Do you object?”“Tch,” came Raoul’s reply. “And what in Jupiter’s name do you think the Black Market is?”He turned his face away, unable to offer any counterargument, and it made me smile. I pushed a button on my keyboard and, having sent my correspondence, stood up, grasped Raoul’s chin in my hand and kissed him rather roughly. A sound, startled and needy, escaped Raoul’s throat. I kissed him again, deeper this time, sweeping my tongue against his before I felt him search mine out and suck on it with eagerness. Good. This was good. I would need to report to Jupiter soon and I wanted to...cover myself. During one of my data uploads, I had come across an amusing piece of information gathered from a water planet called Earth. There were creatures on that planet which lived in the various oceans, creatures which would adorn their bodies with found objects: pebbles, seaweed, shells, even garbage that had been discarded by humans. This was a strategy employed to fool predators, a disguise to avoid detection. For some reason, that bit of information had stayed with me, perhaps because it was charming in its naïveté, and more likely because my enhanced organic brain didn’t ‘forget’ things. But, though it was silly, I thought I could be like that sea creature camouflaging my true self by building up layers and layers of lies like the accretion of pebbles and shells. If I built up enough layers, then perhaps I could distract Jupiter enough to buy time for myself.So I kissed Raoul again and again, letting the sensations spark across the synapses in my brain. If I were being naughty, then let Jupiter see that. Yes, I was kissing my brother, my fellow Blondie, but at least we were of the same kind. Let her punish me for drawing close to her own creation. As long as I could protect Riki from her, then I could bear her disapproval.“Iason.” Raoul’s breathy voice against my cheek snapped me back to alertness. “Hmm? What?”“We shouldn’t…” He pushed me away and smoothed down the front of his robe.I understood Raoul’s reticence. Jupiter was likely watching us. Raoul was her first Blondie creation and I was her last and we, as her favorites, garnered the most attention from her. We usually limited our shenanigans to our private apartments where we knew we were accorded some freedom from Jupiter’s prying eyes, but engaging in intimacy in a public zone like my work office was pushing our luck.“Ah,” I said, “yes, you are so right.” It was charming the way Raoul discreetly brushed his fingers across his lips, as if he could erase the kiss, and maybe remember it, too, beneath the touch of his gloves. It was adorable.“Why don’t we go to the clubroom and play some pool,” he suggested. “It’s been awhile and I’d like to discuss a few things with you.”“Yes,” I smiled into his handsome face. “Why not?” Playing pool with Raoul would be a good distraction and keep me away from Riki that much longer. I clutched Raoul’s hand in my own, giving him an innocent peck on the cheek. “Let’s go then, brother. Let’s play some pool.” ***The game began just fine. I was winning, as usual, so when Raoul began speaking to me in a rather severe tone, I chalked it up to him being a sore loser. I was enjoying myself, sharing a bottle of wine with him as we played, and it took me a moment to actually listen to what he was saying, nothing more than the standard complaints that I had been hearing ever since I took Riki as a Pet, that people were gossiping. My fellow Elites could be thoroughly obnoxious. Oh well, that was nothing new. Raoul kept at it, prattling on about who said what. I kept silent, let him speak his mind as I sank shot after shot. The more dismissive I was of his concerns, the more agitated he became until he finally got to the point. “I’m planning on breeding Mimea soon,” he said at last. “I have a suitable candidate selected.”“Good for you,” I replied as I calculated the angle of a bank shot I wanted to make.He tapped his stick against the side of the table, his brows pulled together in a frown. “Did you know that rumors have been circulating about your mongrel…and my Mimea?”That made me miss my shot by a mile. In fact, I erred so badly the cue ball richocheted off the lip of the table and smashed the light fixture hanging above, I had struck it with such violent force.“Oh ho,” Raoul laughed joylessly, “so that’s what it takes to make you pay attention.”I rested my stick on the table and straightened up, asked calmly, “What rumors?”Raoul sipped his wine, backpedaling with a, “They’re just rumors,” before careening forward, blurting out, “but perhaps there is some truth to them.”“What rumors?” I repeated with a sigh to hide my concern. This was so incredibly tiresome.“I’ve been told that your mongrel was seen taking liberties with my Pet.”“Liberties?” Now I was the one chuckling without mirth. “Go on. Do tell.” The idea that Riki would find a pampered, dim-witted purebred Pet like Mimea interesting enough to take ‘liberties’ with was beyond even my extensive imagination.“Don’t laugh at me, Iason. Haven’t you any concern about your reputation? About my reputation?” “So we’re talking about our reputations now, are we?” I picked up my glass of wine and drank deeply. The game was over, shards of glass all over the table, my mood sour.“Please, Iason. At least send your mongrel to a soiree. Let him satisfy his base sexual urges with another Pet, be it with another male or with a female, as long as he keeps his filthy paws off my Mimea. I can’t have a mongrel like him sniffing around her…contaminating her purity.”I cast him a sideways glance. “Are you serious? Do you really think Riki would ever touch your precious Pet?” “Of course he would! A degenerate mongrel like that would copulate with anything!” Raoul declared.Anything? I wondered. Even with the top Blondie in Tanagura? I shook my head. This conversation was not even worth having, but the next words out of Raoul’s mouth made me choke practically. “I saw it myself,” Raoul stated glumly, “the marks on her body. When I questioned her, she confessed that it was Riki who had…” There was a pause as Raoul took in my shocked reaction and muttered under his breath, “So even you can come to your senses. Never mind that. Just, please, for the love of Jupiter, send him to the soirees, let him find some other amusement. If he couples with another male, then it will lay all the accusations to rest. I’m begging you, Iason, keep him away from Mimea.”My mind raced to find an objective explanation. Perhaps Mimea had lied. Pets are stupid creatures, I reasoned to myself, slaves to their own abject desires and capable of the most licentious behavior. She could have lied to cover her own slutty actions and blamed it on my Riki. Riki was a target for blame from the very beginning after all. Why should anything be different now? I took a deep breath and told Raoul, “I most certainly will not be sending him to any soirees. If you wish, if it puts your mind at rest, I will keep him confined in his room.”Raoul threw up his hands in frustration. “As if that would solve anything.” He huffed out an angry breath, shoulders slumped. “Iason…don’t say I didn’t warn you.” ***It was in a thoroughly angry state that I sat in the chair and allowed Jupiter to access my most recent experiences and memories. What she would see front and center was my rather unpleasant conversation with Raoul, the strict taskmaster that I had been with Kiira, and all the wealth that I had brought to Tanagura during my six months of business dealings. Surely she could forgive me if I still yearned for my Pet. My brain was organic, I was capable of human feelings, and did she not want her creation to evolve? That was my trump card, the excuse I used every time she questioned me about my dealings with Riki. Of course I knew that it was prohibited for a Blondie to engage in sexual intercourse, especially with a human, but I was curious and curiosity was not necessarily a bad thing, was it? I sat in that chair, my mind probed by Jupiter, the data pouring out of me the way I had seen blood drained from living creatures in Raoul’s various labs, and gave myself up to her. There was no point in fighting her, no point in resisting. She held all the cards.For some reason, I thought of Riki playing cards with Daryl, the two of them trying to out-bluff the other. Was that a human thing? What was that like, to be human? I existed on a different plane, well above such primordial slime, and yet I wanted to know ever since I had met Riki: what was it like to be human? What was it like to truly feel things? Humans were mortal, Blondies were immortal. Humans feared death because their lives were precarious, limited; Blondies feared nothing because their lives had no end, unless Jupiter chose to end it. What was it like, then, to love another knowing that it couldn’t last? I felt something cold and wet slide down my face and raised my gloved hand to touch it. Was it tears? Was I crying? I hadn't even known that I could.“Jupiter,” I spoke into the darkened room, data swirling about my head as she absorbed my memories. “Will I die one day? Would you ever let me go?”
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Iason was gone and I was bored. And lonely. After that one trip to the Pet salon, I figured I’d never go back there. I’d made an ass out of myself. I’d made Mimea pass out from whatever it is that I’d said or done, who knows. All I knew for sure is that everyone hated me and maybe she hated me, too. That made me feel like shit, but after a week of lying around the penthouse with nothing to do, I went wandering about Eos Tower, staying well clear of the thirtieth floor. That’s where the Pet salon was located and I didn’t want to go there and run into Mimea and make her so embarrassed that she’d fall down half-dead like before. In my aimless wandering I discovered an arboretum on the fortieth floor. I couldn’t believe it. It was so much bigger than the ‘greenhouse’ at Guardian. There were all sorts of tall trees and too many low growing plants to ever remember. The place was nearly empty of people. Most times, I was the only one there.When I lived in Ceres, I was hardly ever alone. In Guardian, everyone slept in dorms, twenty kids to a room. Guy used to sneak in after lights-out and get under the thin blanket with me. I was scrawny back then and always cold no matter the season and he would put his arms around me and keep me warm. I can still remember how it felt with my back pressed to his chest, my icy feet tucked between his calves, and his hands wrapped around my waist. Guy. He’d bring me a cookie or something sweet he’d stolen from the cafeteria. I’d eat it in bed in the darkness, then sleep better because I had something in my stomach. The thought of it now…I couldn’t stand it. What had I run away from? Was it so bad? I thought things would be so much better if I could escape the slums. I wasn’t there anymore, the slums, Ceres. I was in Eos Tower and so alone.I found out then that I really didn’t want to be alone. I was lucky to take a piss in privacy at Guardian, so the idea that I could have space all to myself seemed like the world’s best thing. I can’t believe how stupid I was, always wanting the opposite of what I had at the moment. And at the moment Iason was off doing whatever shitty things Blondies did for Jupiter and I was bored out of my mind in the penthouse watching Daryl vacuum the carpets and dust the knick-knacks. At night I’d jack off a couple of times and think about Mimea. After weeks of my moping around, Daryl told me I should give the Pet salon another try.“You seem sad, Riki,” Daryl said.We were playing cards and I was beating the pants off of him. “I’m a fucking prisoner,” I grumbled. “Why shouldn’t I be sad.”“You’re not a prisoner,” he corrected. “You have a Pet ring. You can go about as you please.”“Wrong!” I reminded him. “Every time I go to the front gate the security guards kick the shit out of me.”Daryl made a noise in his throat and wiped his forehead, as if I was giving him a migraine. “I already told you: no Pet is allowed at the front gate. Why you persist is—”“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you checking or raising?” I asked, wanting to finish the card game so I could go into my room to beat off.“Um…raising.” He pushed two more wrapped candies onto the center of the table before telling me with a goofy smile, “I’ve heard from the other Furniture that Mimea was asking about you.”I snorted in disbelief. “Go fuck yourself.” His ridiculously sincere expression put doubts in my head, though. “Seriously? She was asking about me? Like…in a good way or a bad way?”Daryl tilted his head, confused by my question. “Why…in a good way, of course.”“You mean: she wants to see me again…alive rather than dead?”“Why ever would she want to see you dead?”I slammed my cards facedown on the table, more than a little exasperated. “I dunno. Maybe because I made her faint the last time I saw her. What do you think?”“I think you should make an effort to be friends with the other Pets,” Daryl said. He cleared his throat and went on, his voice tight, “A Pet’s stay in Eos is short…a year or two…you should make the most of it.”We turned our cards over and I collected the small pile of candy. Daryl had lost another hand but he didn’t even seem to mind. I couldn’t figure him out, the Furniture. He practically worshipped Iason, doing everything that smug bastard asked him to do, never talking back to him, bowing every time Iason entered or exited a room, like he was a god. But then, behind Iason’s back, Daryl was nice to me in his own weird way. Did he actually care that I hated my life?The next day I bathed. With Iason off-planet, I hadn’t bothered to wash up or make myself presentable. What was the point? But after Daryl had told me that Mimea had asked about me, I decided I owed her an apology in person. I soaked in the tub until the water got uncomfortably lukewarm, then dried my hair.“Daryl!” I called out. In five seconds, his stupid little face appeared in the fogged mirror of my bathroom. “Do something with my hair!” I told him. “I’m going to the Pet salon…don’t wanna look like a total loser in front of Mimea.”The Furniture smiled at me and started reaching for various bottles on the vanity. “Riki-sama, what a splendid idea.”By the time he was done with me, even I thought I looked hot. He picked out an outfit for me to wear and then led me to the thirtieth floor even though I could have gone by myself. “It looks better this way,” Daryl chirped. “Master Iason would be proud of you for making such a good impression.”I swallowed the snide comment I was going to make—something along the lines of “Iason can suck my dick”—because I could already see Mimea just inside the entrance of the Pet salon and she was waving at me like she actually wanted to talk to me. “Catch ya later,” I told Daryl, shoving him aside as soon as he unclipped the leash connected to my collar. I sauntered in, keeping my face neutral even though I was jumping up and down inside with joy. This girl liked me, really liked me, I was sure of it, and for some reason it made me forget my loneliness and filled me with excitement instead.“Riki!” Mimea giggled when I came to stand in front of her. “I thought you’d never come back again.”“Yeah, well….” I scratched the back of my neck and shuffled my feet. Dang, was I too cute or what? “Can’t stay away from a pretty girl, can I?” Inside I was punching myself for being so cheesy. I mean, shit, what mongrel from Ceres would dare to utter such sappy stuff and live to face another day? But Mimea seemed to eat it all up because her green eyes widened like saucers and then she covered her mouth as she giggled some more. Fuck! Why did that make me feel so good? Like my life was worth living? I didn’t understand any of this! She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the main room, past the bar and into a quiet corner as we ignored the stares—both disapproving and shocked—of all the other Pets already milling about the salon. We settled onto a sofa, her hand still gripping mine.“Don’t mind the others,” she whispered to me. “They’re just jealous.”“Of what?” I scoffed. I cast my eyes around the room and glared back at all the hostile looks I was getting. Oh. They were all top-of-the-line Pets while I had no pedigree, and yet here I was sitting next to the most blue-blooded Academy Pet bred by Raoul Am himself. What a travesty of justice! And not only that, I was owned by Iason Mink, the most illustrious Blondie in all of Eos Tower! Take that, motherfuckers! This was too good to be true: me, Riki the Dark hanging with the most valuable Pet in Tanagura. I wondered what my old gang would think if they knew I was actually holding hands with a real live beautiful girl. Even Guy would be impressed. Yeah, him and everyone else.Mimea waved her hand and a service android approached. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?” the machine inquired in a monotone. It looked exactly like a piece of Furniture, except its movements were a little stiff and robotic.I slouched back further against the cushions. “What are my options?” I asked, like I was too cool for school.The android raised his hand and the menu screen was projected in front of my face, nothing more than a series of pictures. The Pets in Eos Tower didn't know how to read. I found this out the first time Daryl led me to the Pet salon and I noticed all the signage had different colored shapes in addition to the letters."Establishments marked with the green circle are Pet-accessible," Daryl told me. "All other areas are off-limits." I must have looked confused because he went on to explain, "You were raised in Guardian. The Pets in Eos were not...er...except you, of course. You learned your letters." That was true. Mongrels went hungry in Guardian, but we had the letters beaten into us. A whole lot of good that did.I gave the menu a quick once-over and stated my preferences for food and drink. “How’s that sound?” I asked Mimea. The times that we had credit sticks, Guy would always order for me at the bar and it always made me laugh, he was so proud of being the man, but now I understood how good it felt to…to take the lead that way. I was the boss of Bison, but in our private moments, Guy was the one who took care of me. I had always liked it, the way he took care of me…it made me know how much he loved me, and right now, with Mimea, it felt good to be in charge. When she smiled back at me and nodded, I felt happier than I had in ages. So what if everyone else was shooting me death rays? I didn’t give a shit. Right now I was invincible, floating on a cloud even higher than Iason’s penthouse in Eos Tower. Nothing could hurt me, nothing could go wrong.
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Was it sheer lunacy that made me ignore all of Raoul’s warnings? Or maybe I had already heard it too many times from him and the rest of my brothers—that I had crossed the line by taking a mongrel as my Pet, that Riki was untrainable and nothing but trouble, that I was going to incur Jupiter’s wrath because I was so arrogant. What did it matter when my own heart couldn’t turn away from desire?I found myself somewhere in downtown Tanagura sitting alone in an aero car that I had piloted myself and parked on a side street. I didn’t want a droid, or even Katze, in the driver’s seat and intruding on my thoughts. So, what was I thinking? Funny, I was thinking: “Riki, what are you thinking? What are you doing with Mimea? What do you want?”My throat constricted and it wasn’t until after I had done it that I realized I had put finger-shaped dents into the steering wheel. I must have been gripping it too hard. It was night time and it was raining and I could hear the the steady drumbeat of the droplets pelting the metallic surface of the aero car. I had yet to see Riki but for some reason, the sound of the rain had me anxious, if a Blondie could even feel such a way. If what Raoul said was true and Riki and his Mimea were engaging in unauthorized behavior, then what did it mean? Was Riki trying to insult me, humiliate me? Or did he have genuine affection for this stupid female Pet? For some inexplicable reason, the latter scenario seemed so much worse than the former. I had to know, even if it meant turning a blind eye and letting Riki carry on thinking I was ignorant of his actions, I had to know his true intent.It was very late when I was finally able to rouse myself from this strange melancholy stupor. The rain had stopped and Eos Tower was quiet when I entered my penthouse. Daryl was at the entrance, sleepy eyed but attentive as usual when he greeted me at the portal.“Welcome home, Master,” he said with a bow.I patted him on the head and it was his surprised reaction that made me draw back my gloved hand. When had I ever actually touched him before? Probably never. And yet, it felt natural to do so, it seemed right. When had I become this way? I gave him my outer robe and asked, “Is he sleeping?”“Yes,” my Furniture replied. “He’s in his room.”“Good. Go to bed now. I’ll take care of things myself.” I watched Daryl hang up my robe in the entryway closet and then disappear into his private quarters next to the kitchen. I walked into the living room and opened a bottle of wine, then I stood out on the balcony while I slowly finished the bottle, my gaze steady upon the twinkling lights of Tanagura below and Midas in the distance. The air was still damp from the rain, cool and misty at this height. My mind was so unsettled but the wine tasted good on my tongue. No amount of alcohol could ever make me drunk, but the acid of the tannins and the slight numbing effect of the chemicals was pleasant. It dulled the pain of Raoul’s words to me earlier that evening.Riki, what are you doing? The sky was beginning to lighten by the time I went back inside. I entered his room soundlessly and stopped just inside the doorway. He was lying on his back with his arms thrown over his head on the pillow. In such a position, he appeared completely vulnerable, inviting almost, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to approach him. My Pet. I didn’t dare sit on the bed lest he awaken, so I simply looked down on him, at his youthful face relaxed in slumber, at the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed softly. My Pet. Riki. I had missed him terribly but in that moment I felt he was mine: a lovely, proud mongrel at rest. You are mine. I went back into my room, undressed, laid on my bed alone and powered down at last.The next morning, I was in a splendid mood. I didn’t even mind that Riki was sleeping in late. This was nothing unusual for him; even if my Furniture had told him I had returned to Eos Tower, I would expect nothing less than blatant disrespect from Riki. When he finally made his way to the dining room table where I was finishing my breakfast, he surprised me with a kiss on the cheek. “What is this, Riki?” I asked. He was wearing a loose nightshirt but was clearly bare from the waist down.“Tch. Good fucking morning,” he replied before sitting down on my lap without my even requesting it. “Have a good trip?”“Yes,” I smiled. “Now give your Master a proper kiss.” He scowled, of course, and then bent his face obediently and slotted his lips to mine. “That’s a good Pet,” I praised before I clutched him to my chest and kissed him deeply. I was tempted to bring up all the things Raoul had mentioned to me the night before, the rumors about Riki and Mimea, but Riki was whimpering so deliciously into my mouth and squirming in my lap that it chased all those thoughts out of my head. The only thing that mattered was that I had him trembling in my arms. I reached around his back and twisted the ring on my finger and he immediately drew in a sharp breath.“Iason!” he cried out.I twisted the ring again and his response was instantaneous. He flung one leg around my waist to straddle me in the chair and ground his hips against me, his cock already hard as he pulled up his nightshirt and exposed himself to me. I watched him fondle himself shamelessly, first with one hand, then with two, undulating his hips and bringing himself almost to climax before I gripped his wrists and held them tightly in my hand.“Not yet,” I ordered, “not until I say you can.”I took him right on the table, my breakfast dishes cast aside and littering the floor, Riki’s legs on my shoulders while I thrust into him too roughly. The sounds he was making…it made me want to break him! I poured myself into him first, his shouts ringing in my ears. He was begging for mercy—begging like a proper Pet!—and my pleasure seemed to have no end. It wasn’t until Riki had gone almost comatose from exhaustion that I realized I had lost myself in another world, another plane of existence where it was only me and my Riki and no one else could intrude. It was only then that I pulled out and sucked his lovely cock into my mouth, drew my tongue up and down his burning shaft while I twisted the ring on my finger to make his Pet ring pulse with just the right vibrations to bring him to climax.“Iason!” he shouted. “Master!”He flooded my mouth with his sweet nectar, flooded my ears with his sweet voice. I knew then. I knew I loved him, my Riki. I loved him! Even if it were merely a lowly emotion, even if it marked me as less than a Blondie, I drank it in, I drank it down, I swallowed every precious drop of it.***I punished him well and good. The Eos security droids caught him red-handed with Mimea, or should I say, they caught him in flagrante delicto. That it came as a surprise to me…well, he had been so good, so well-behaved with me that I…yes, it came as a surprise despite all of Raoul’s warnings and misgivings. So what else could I do but punish him? Riki had ruined my brother’s plans to breed his Pet with another purebred by the name of Jenna, but more than that, Riki had sullied all of our reputations: mine, Raoul’s, his Pet’s purity and worth. He had done it all to spite me. I tortured him for days on end, kept him chained and under the mercy of his Pet ring, and all he could say was: “I only did it once with her!”As if that were any excuse! “I don’t care if you did it once or a hundred times,” I told him, “it’s all the same to me!” And it was. Whether he did it once or a hundred times, it cut me to the core.“Just let me cum,” he begged. “Let me cum!”Was he really that disobedient? Did he not understand how he had betrayed me? That he had gone behind my back and copulated with that stupid Pet without my permission and then asked for satisfaction was too much. Raoul was beyond livid and I promised him that I would discipline Riki, I would make him regret his actions…“End him!” Raoul had demanded earlier. “He’s made my Pet unsuitable for breeding. Not only that, I am the laughing stock of all Tanagura! Do you have any idea what our brothers are saying about us?”Of course I knew. I didn’t need to hear the gossip to know, but it wasn't the gossip that pained me. What I couldn't abide was the betrayal—that my Pet had deliberately violated the sanctity of my ownership!—so I agreed to not only punish Riki with hours of torture, I made him confess his dishonesty, made them both choke on it.“Say it. Tell her you never had any feelings for her.” I pushed a button on the console and projected the hologram of Mimea in front of his face. “Tell her it meant nothing to you.” I twisted the ring on my finger and increased the level of pain threefold on the Pet ring around his cock.Before us, the hologram of Raoul’s Pet clasped her hands and pleaded, “Riki, you love me, don’t you? Speak the truth! You love me! Don’t let them tear us apart!”Riki writhed on the bed, his teeth clenched as I twisted my ring once more. He didn’t say a word. Not one word.“There. You see?” Behind the hologram of Mimea stood Raoul, and it was to Raoul that I continued to speak. “He doesn’t love her. He never loved her. It was just meaningless curiosity.” Raoul nodded and yanked the chain that was connected to the collar of his Pet, silencing her cries. I couldn't help but smile rather sheepishly when I realized that what I said was more for my own reassurance than for my brother's. “I will compensate you for the credits you paid for breeding rights with Jenna. Are you satisfied?”“Yes,” Raoul replied.His expression was grim but I knew he understood that this was all for show. As much as he had hoped to produce a purebred litter between Mimea and Jenna, our bond was still intact. We were brothers, and we would stand by each other, even if it meant disobeying our Maker.
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In hindsight I should have known better, but Riki had been so good, so well-behaved while my Master was away…would you believe me if I told you that Riki’s happiness was my own? I know it must sound silly. What did it matter if Furniture was happy or unhappy? Furniture was nothing—nothing more than a tool, an object, a thing—so what did it matter if Furniture felt anything at all? Until Riki came to Eos Tower, I can honestly say I never thought about such things as happiness or unhappiness, but my days tending to my Master’s unusual Pet stirred up feelings inside me that were alien and new.It didn’t happen at first. In the beginning, I was too shocked by Riki’s recalcitrant behavior to feel pity for him. No other Pet owned by my Master since I had been his Furniture had ever dared to be disobedient. As time went on, though, if Riki was punished—if he screamed out in pain or cried with misery or shouted with rage—it went right inside me, into my heart and I felt as if I were living in his body and enduring the suffering. It was bad for so long, but then things took a turn for the better. Riki opened up, calmed down, became more willing to learn the ways of Eos. Our Master was away for weeks at a time and Riki would spend his days at the Pet salon or ask to go to the arboretum. He would return to the penthouse in a cheerful mood and we would take our evening meals together and then play cards or he would smoke outside on the terrace before going to bed. Life was peaceful. I knew from the other Furniture that Riki was not well-liked at the salon, but he wasn’t getting into fights like he used to. Instead, he was spending his time with Lord Am’s Pet, Mimea, and steering clear of the other Pets who wanted to bait him. I was proud of Riki and I told him so.“Give me a break,” was Riki’s response. “Those losers aren’t worth my time.”“But Mimea is worth your time?” I teased. He stuck his middle finger up at me—I knew what that meant; I had grown up in Guardian—but I was careful to warn him, “It’s fine to socialize with her. Just keep in mind that Lord Am will be pairing her with Jenna soon. You mustn’t—”“We’re just friends, for shit’s sake,” Riki snorted. “It’s not like I’m fucking her without Iason’s permission.”“It’s not just Master Iason you should be concerned about,” I replied. “Lord Am is—”“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,” scoffed Riki. “All those Blondies have a gigantic stick up their butts.”I remember being appalled by Riki’s flippant attitude. It was as if all my Master’s efforts in training him had been for nothing, but Riki was just that way. He could be full of exuberance one second, then spouting filth from his mouth, then charming and coy, then nasty and violent. He was unpredictable. When he was in a good mood, you couldn’t help but want to please him; when he was in a sad mood, you only wanted to comfort him; and when he was in a stubborn mood…well…I never held it against my Master for punishing him.That day that Riki was caught by the Eos security guards in a very compromising situation with Mimea made me fear for his life, though, because I knew that my Master would punish him even though he had been ‘good’ for so long. Except, Riki hadn’t been ‘good’ at all. I suppose you could say I had deluded myself the entire time because I was so pleased to see him happy for once. Yes, I admit it. I was genuinely happy that Riki would awake each morning and bathe himself without my nagging him to pay attention to his appearance. He did it all himself: showered and combed his hair and dressed in proper attire. He would eat his breakfast without fuss and then I would take him to the Pet salon or to the arboretum and each day would pass without incidence. Until the incidence happened.I had gone to retrieve Riki from the Pet salon one evening and was told that he had been ‘arrested’ for violating another Pet. My Master had only returned to Eos Tower recently and I was too busy running his errands to check up on Riki earlier in the day, so imagine my shock when I found out Riki was being held in a cell to await disciplinary action or worse. I rushed back to the penthouse only to overhear my Master in a furious argument with Lord Am. They were both in the living room and Lord Am was demanding that my Master terminate Riki.“That filthy mongrel laid his paws on my Mimea,” Lord Am seethed. “You knew I had arranged for her to breed with Jenna but now all that is ruined! She’s worthless to me now!”“I will compensate you,” my Master replied.Lord Am wasn’t appeased, not in the least. If anything, my Master’s offer of ‘compensation’ only enraged the other Blondie. “I don’t care about compensation! What about my reputation? What about our reputation?”“What about it?” my Master grumbled. He nonchalantly sipped his glass of wine, but I had been with Lord Mink long enough to know that he was devastated by what Riki had done, if in fact Riki had committed the worst crime. I could only hope that it was just some cruel rumor and not anything factual. The other Pets had always had it out for Riki—had always hated him out of jealousy and told blatant lies about him—so maybe this was just a particularly heinous accusation that had no basis in reality. I wanted to plead his case, but I was just Furniture and thus I had no say. To speak up would be to make matters worse, so I stood in the doorway, silent and afraid while the two most elite Blondies of Eos Tower argued about their Pets.“End him!” Lord Am shouted. “End him and then we can both be done with this fiasco!”A shiver went up my spine when I heard that. To terminate a Pet was not unusual; in fact, it was often done on a whim. If a Master grew tired of a Pet or was displeased in any way, then the Pet was either killed on the spot or sold to a brothel in Midas or sent off-planet to a slave mill. It really didn’t matter and no one ever bothered to think twice about it. Pets, like Furniture, were expendable. But Riki was not an ordinary Pet, even if he was despised by everyone in Eos Tower, and his owner was no ordinary Master. Iason Mink was as different from the other Blondies as Riki was from the other Pets. The next words out of my Master’s mouth made me almost collapse with relief.“I will not,” my Master said. “I will punish him. I will make him regret what he has done, but he is mine and I will keep him.”From my vantage point in the foyer, I could see into the living room; I could see my Master walk over to Lord Am and rest a hand on his shoulder. I could see him place a tender kiss on Lord Am’s mouth, and then push him onto the sofa, where he kissed him again. This was nothing new. I had witnessed much more than that between the two of them, but this time…this time it carried so much more weight. Riki’s life hung in the balance, his life was what was being bargained for as my Master continued to draw sighs and moans from Lord Am.Riki, I thought, do you realize how lucky you are? Do you know how much your Master loves you?
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It wasn’t that I didn’t want to fuck her; I did. For a mongrel from Ceres to bed a girl—much less one as hoity-toity as Mimea—was like hitting the jackpot, like winning the mother of all lotteries and getting a first class ticket to paradise. And it was everything I couldn’t even imagine it could be. To slip my dick between her legs was goddamn amazing. The bare skin of her thighs was like silk against my own, and her pussy…holy fucking hell, it was tight and hot and slick and I wanted it to go on forever, the way my cock felt sliding around inside her, the way her body wrapped around me and the little breathy sounds she made while I pounded her. It made me wonder if this is what it felt like for Guy when he was inside me…did it feel this good to him? Did it feel this good to Iason when he was having his pervy way with me? I’d cum in Guy’s mouth before, in Iason’s mouth, but cumming inside a girl’s pussy was on a whole other level. I felt like I’d finally crossed that bridge and become a man. Back in Ceres, this was the kind of bragging rights no slumdogs ever held.The weeks leading up to me popping my cherry with Mimea were a nice distraction from the boredom and loneliness of Eos Tower. I usually met up with her in the arboretum where we could hide behind some bushes to make out, or just sit on a bench and talk about stupid shit. Well, it was mostly Mimea talking—I never had much to say—and she was only interested in the sex soirees and gossip, but I liked looking at her round little face and her big green eyes and the way her tits jiggled whenever she laughed. That girl laughed about almost everything. Yeah, I didn’t mind listening to all her chit chat, not when she was giving me such a sweet view of her rack.But I never thought she’d actually want me to fuck her, not at first. I’d had it drilled into my head that, even if I was Iason Mink’s Pet, I was still a piece of Ceres trash who wasn’t fit to lick the ground they walked on. Fine. Whatever. I didn’t care what those jerk-off Pets thought. I didn’t care that the hickeys on my body were shameful just because Iason had put them there. What was the big deal? Was it any better that the marks on their bodies were left there by some other dumbass Pet at some sex soiree? At least Iason wasn’t some retarded Pet. He might be a raging asshole, but he could have all of them tossed out of Eos Tower with one word if he wanted them gone.He could have tossed me out, too. If I offended him enough, maybe he would kick my sorry ass back to Ceres. It was a thought that had been rattling around in the back of my mind for a long time, but no matter what I did to piss him off, no matter how many times he punished me, he didn’t send me away. Daryl had warned me about this—how bad Pets were sold off or killed—but so far it hadn’t happened to me. Then, one day Mimea showed up at the arboretum crying and whining about being paired up with Jenna for breeding. I knew the guy from my visits to the Pet salon. The dude didn’t have two brain cells to rub together but, as far as looks went, he was pretty hot shit: sleek body, perfect facial features, nice dick. I wasn’t sure what Mimea was complaining about. I mean, if I had to fuck another Pet, I could tap that ass for sure.“But, Riki, I don’t want Jenna!” Mimea was ugly crying and getting snot all over my shoulder. It was kinda gross but I didn’t want to be a cold hearted bastard like Iason about it, so I let her beat her girly fists against my chest and cry some more. “Lord Am just wants me to have babies with him. He’s not like you, Riki. Jenna’s just a pretty face, he’s not like you at all.”“Th’ fuck?” Dang, what was she getting at, building me up just to tear me down? Here I had thought that she wanted to hang out with me because she thought I was a stud. “What am I, chopped liver or something?” That only made her cry harder. I patted her on the head and told her, “Hey, pipe down.” The other people in the arboretum were shooting me nasty looks, like I had done something to make Mimea flip her shit. Of course, it had to be my fault, I was that low class mongrel stinking up the place. I grabbed her hand and led her to a different part of the arboretum where no one could see us and sat us behind a tall clump of ornamental grasses. She hugged me and started blubbering again.“I love you, Riki. I only want to be with you.”That really shocked me. I mean, she was Raoul Am’s Pet, something he had bred in one of his Academy labs. She was super pretty and super duper dumb, like all the other Pets. They were interested only in serving their Masters and fucking other Pets at these sex parties. Iason didn’t let me go to any of them and I was grateful for that; rolling in the hay with him was already more than I could handle. But now Mimea was telling me she loved me and it sent a spike of fear and longing in me. I don’t know why. It had never scared me when Guy told me he loved me. In fact, it always made me feel good. When Mimea said it…I should have been thrilled, proud even, that a girl who looked like that could love me, but instead I felt my stomach twist into a knot. It was that same feeling I’d get back in the slums when me and my Bison boys were out prowling and we’d round a corner and I’d just know something bad was lurking in the shadows. My instincts were never wrong, but this time I betrayed myself.Was it just an ego thing? Yeah, Mimea confessing to me definitely stroked my ego even if it set off a bazillion alarm bells. But more than that, it made me think of Iason and my mind became a tornado of confusion. How could Mimea love me after just a few sappy meet ups? I’d been stuck with Iason for a year and he never once said he even liked me. I was always just his stupid Pet, just a hole for him to stick his cock into, a thing for him to play with and order around and torture depending on his mood. Damn him! How could he treat me this way? This pretty girl was saying she loved me and he, he, all he ever did was fuck up my life with his smug attitude and his big dick and overbearing ways and why, why didn’t he tell me he loved me like Guy used to?I knew why. Because that hulking piece of machinery wasn’t capable of anything remotely human or humane. Those brown nosers in Eos Tower all believed he was Jupiter’s favorite son, that he was perfect and powerful and someone to be admired, but he was the biggest jerk in the universe; that was his real claim to fame. “You’re an asshole!” I’d told him to his face more than once. “You’re a cold, unfeeling, stuck up asshole!” So why did it matter to me that Iason didn’t love me, why did I want him to after all the shitty things he had done to me? I had Guy’s love, after all, and it was to him that I wanted to go back to one day.Up until that moment, I didn’t know how to make it back to Guy. I was a prisoner in Eos Tower, but Mimea’s confession put an idea in my head and that idea had me snickering in the shower later that evening after I had parted ways with Mimea. Iason was taking dinner at home and I needed to wash her perfume off of me before he showed up at the penthouse. The scent of it on me had put Iason in a royally foul mood the last time and I didn’t want to get on his bad side. I wanted to be the one toying with him and for that, I needed to keep him in the dark until I made my move. If I took advantage of Mimea’s feelings for me, we would likely get caught, and if we got caught, then I knew we’d be punished, but imagine the damage it would do to Iason’s reputation, how humiliating it would be for him: his mongrel Pet rutting with a top class purebred owned by his best bro. Maybe Mimea would drop a litter of half breed mutts. Wouldn’t that be hilarious! Iason would be the laughing stock of Tanagura. What could he do but put me down or send me away? It would be my way out, dead or alive, I didn’t care.Only, it didn’t work out that way. Just my shitty luck, I suppose. Oh, we did it—Mimea and I fucked our brains out—and we got caught by the Eos security guards—one of the other Pets probably ratted us out—and Iason punished me for days on end, but he didn’t put me down or send me away. Mimea’s Master, Lord Am, sent her away, sold her off to some brothel, I don’t know which one, I never saw her again after Iason made me watch her begging for me to confess my love to her. I was in so much pain I couldn’t say a word, but even if I could talk, I wouldn’t have said I loved her. I didn’t love her and I wouldn’t have lied about it even if it was just to hurt Iason’s feelings. What feelings? He had none. What I had done didn’t even seem to humiliate him, not enough for him to end my life at least, or to get rid of me by tossing me back to Ceres.After he decided that I had been disciplined to his satisfaction, everything went back to the way it was before. He never made mention of Mimea again, of what I had done. He acted as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t believe it. Did I mean that little to him? Was I nothing but a big fat zero in his eyes? I hadn’t made a dent in his pride, hadn’t made him ashamed of me, because I was so fucking insignificant. If he had stayed pissed off at me, that would mean something at least, but he wasn’t angry. He told me I was free to go about Eos Tower as long as I stayed within the green zones and didn’t even insist that Daryl accompany me to the Pet salon. As if I would ever go back there. I stayed in the penthouse and drank, drank until I blacked out. Rather than hurting Iason, I had ruined Mimea’s life and ripped a hole into my own gut. Each day melted into the next, the liquor flowing like a river in my veins. I’d make Daryl listen to my maudlin ramblings as I sucked down one bottle after another, then fall asleep and dream of Guy, only to wake in the dark with a mouth full of cotton and a stomach stuffed with regret.I didn’t tell Iason I was sorry for what I did, just like Iason never said he loved me. Why say what you didn’t mean, even if you really did mean it? It was easier to bury the truth in a lie. After the Mimea fiasco finally blew over, Iason barely spent time with me. He was away a lot and I didn’t ask where he went. Sometimes Daryl would just tell me without any prompting and it would annoy the shit out of me.“I don’t wanna know,” I’d bark. “I don’t give a flying fuck which planet he’s on. He can stay there for all I care.”The truth was, this was worse than being killed. This was being rejected and having your face shoved in your own worthlessness. In Ceres, my life didn’t have value either but I was still somebody. I was the leader of Bison, I was feared and respected by the other mongrels, I had the love and loyalty of a pairing partner, I had my wits and my arrogance and my own pride. None of that could get me out of the gutter, but I could look at myself in the mirror and say, “Fuck, yeah, I’m still alive,” and then go out and kick some ass. Now, the only ass suitable for kicking was my own and I didn’t even have the motivation to do that.Whenever Iason would return from a trip, he’d come to my room and undress without saying a word, and I’d get on my hands and knees and wait for him to do whatever he wanted. Sometimes he’d have me suck him off, sometimes he’d suck me off, sometimes he’d finger me or fuck me, but he’d never kiss me anymore. Was it because he thought I’d kissed Mimea? Was I contaminated or something? If he didn’t love me, did he hate me? I wanted to know but the pathetic shred of pride I still had left inside me wouldn’t let me ask these things, but one night I was drunk and it slipped out.“If you hate me so much, just kill me already.”I was on my back and he had my legs thrown over his shoulders as he drilled me; his blue eyes had never seemed colder as he stared down at me, silent as a stone. He’d made me cum twice already but it was more like being punished than being pleasured, like he was doing it to remind me that my body was his to use but not to love, like I was no different than any ordinary Pet. It was so stupid, this whole fixation of mine, but I couldn’t get past it for some reason. Maybe it was because what Guy and I had together was mutual but this twisted thing with Iason was so one-sided: it was just me wanting him to give me what Guy had given me so freely, even the tiniest crumb. I couldn’t believe I had sunk so low as to want the love of a Blondie.“Guy,” I muttered to myself after Iason was done with me for the night and had gone back to his own room, “if you could see me now, you’d laugh your ass off…I’ve climbed all the way up Eos Tower just to sit at the top of the trash heap.”The king of idiots. That was me.
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There is an old idiom from Earth recorded in the ancient texts: “Lightning never strikes twice.”I assure you this saying doesn’t hold true on Amoï, for I am proof of that. What are the odds of a Blondie being betrayed by, not one, but two Furniture, and two very intelligent Furniture at that? Perhaps that was the problem, their intelligence. Smart Furniture, smart Pets…it’s no wonder everyone wanted them dumb and docile…so much less trouble that way. It’s no wonder my brothers took to reminding me of this fact over and over again.After Riki’s unsanctioned copulation with Mimea was made public, the nagging became a constant nuisance. One would assume that highly rational beings would forgo such a useless activity, but no, and out of all my Elite brothers, Raoul was the most persistent. That’s not to say that the other Blondies showed any restraint when it came to the subject of my Pet—Orphe, Gideon, and especially Aisha, were all egregious offenders during our monthly Syndicate meetings—but Raoul’s opinion actually mattered to me, as much as anyone’s opinion could matter to me. He pestered me with threats about Jupiter being displeased should I continue to ignore proper protocol. I could forgive Raoul his rabid adherence to protocol. He was a scientist and proper protocol is an absolute necessity when conducting lab work, but my Pet was no science experiment. I suppose Riki might have been some kind of experiment, one that I was conducting to test the boundaries of my patience and tolerance and, more disturbingly, my capacity to feel human emotions, the most irrational and unwanted thing for a Blondie. The truth was, my experiences with Riki were becoming so convoluted, twisted and upside down, the jealousy in me clouding my thoughts. Wasn’t it only right that my Pet submit to me, his Master? Yet my control over him seemed to be nothing but a wisp of smoke, as insubstantial as the exhalations from his lips as he puffed on his cigarettes. What I can only call love was a form of bondage, and though I could keep Riki chained at the wrists, he had chained my heart in return.This Raoul could see. Unlike my other brothers, who considered my actions to be yet another example of arrogance on my part, Raoul’s concern went far deeper than mere disgust at my flouting of rules. He was afraid for me and for good reason. I had been reprimanded by Jupiter once again and Raoul was frantic.“This is it,” Raoul told me. He had come to my penthouse office after my meeting with Jupiter and I knew he had been called in to report to her afterwards. “If you don’t cease and desist with this nonsense, Jupiter will have me wipe your mind. Is this what you want?”I looked into Raoul’s face, his normally handsome features contorted in dismay, and pitied him. My brother had conducted countless mind wipes, either under the direct order of Jupiter or for pure experimentation, and it had never caused such a fit of anxiety in him. “What is this, dear brother? I thought you enjoyed tinkering with brains, pulling the plug on the—”He grabbed me by the front of my outer robe and spluttered, “How can you joke like this? Jupiter is serious! And I’m the one who’s going to have to do it!” He let me go and started pacing about the room, both hands carding through his long hair. “This, this obsession that you have with that mongrel…she won’t stand for it anymore, and why should she? It’s absolutely unconscionable, it’s perverse, it’s—”I interrupted Raoul’s diatribe with something I had yet to admit aloud to myself, and the words surprised me even as I spoke. “If I told you that I…that I loved Riki, you’d probably laugh, wouldn’t you, Raoul?”His face froze with the revelation, then crumpled. “You.” He swallowed, head shaking slowly back and forth, nowhere close to laughing. “You’ve lost your mind.” He put a gloved hand to his mouth and bit down on his knuckles, like I had seen his human Pets do in the lab nursery when their nervous systems were being conditioned to accept stress stimuli. “I’ll have to do it,” he muttered behind his fist. “You’re going to force me to do it.”In all the years I had been with Raoul, I had never seen him so miserable, but his wretched reaction to my confession gave me hope, an inkling of a way out. Time. I needed to buy time for myself. “Raoul,” I approached him and wrapped him in my arms, pressed my cheek to his and whispered into his ear, “I’ll be good, I’ll behave,” I promised. His breath caught and I squeezed him tighter. “Whatever I feel for my Pet can’t be helped, but we can fix it, you and I, we can fix it together.” All Blondies are roughly the same size, but when I had him like this, trembling and at my mercy, he seemed as vulnerable as a Pet. “I wouldn’t hold it against you,” I assured, “if you wiped my mind.” I brought my hand to the small of his back and pulled him closer, ground my hip against his so he could feel the hardening of my cock. “If it came to that…” I took his earlobe into my mouth, traced my tongue along the ridges of its shell and felt him shiver. “…if you give me what I want, if you help me, then it won’t come to that, will it? You’ll always have me by your side…like this…”He put up no resistance when I undressed him and ordered, “On your knees.” Riki was holed up in his bedroom, drunk and comatose, and Daryl had been sent out on an errand for me, not that I was worried about my Furniture seeing, but Raoul was almost compulsive in his need for discretion, except when it came to his one weakness. In less than a second he was kneeling naked before me, the pink of his tongue visible as it darted along his upper lip. I leaned back against my work table, resting both of my hands at the edge. “Go on. Take it out.”It was lovely the way Raoul peeled away the layers of my outer robe, then my tunic, to unfasten the flap in my trousers and reach in with his silk sheathed fingers to free my engorged cock. He performed his actions with grace, with a reverence and worshipfulness I had yet to instill in Riki. It made me smile. I had much to teach my Pet, and that required a future with him. A future. I slid my cock into the warm wetness of Raoul’s mouth, letting the more sensitive head rub against the smoothness of his tongue before pushing the entire length down his throat. Raoul’s eyes rolled to the back of his head but he didn’t choke—we Elites don’t need to breathe in the human sense—he merely tilted his face and loosened his jaw to allow for easier passage. From low in his diaphragm came a moan of pleasure, a vibration I felt thrumming around my member. If only I could be satisfied with this, if only it were enough. Before Riki, it had been more than enough, but now…I pulled out, my cock shiny and slick with Raoul’s spit. I had never taken my brother the way I took Riki, but the sight of my cock wavering before the ‘O’ of Raoul’s open mouth had me down on the floor with him. I turned him, pushing him onto his hands and knees and positioned myself between his spread thighs. He finally came to his senses when I gripped his hips tightly in my hands, my cock at his entrance.“Iason?”I shoved myself into him in one go, our semi-useless testicles meeting in a wet slap. When he screamed out, I must say I was taken aback. “Well, isn’t that something? Does it hurt?” I pulled out and slammed in again. “How’s that?”“It hurts!” Raoul complained. “What in Jupiter’s name are you doing?”He struggled to get up but I held him down, one hand at the back of his neck. Truth be told, I don’t think he was trying all that hard to wriggle out of my grasp. Riki, who was much smaller, would put up a bigger fight on any given day. “Pleasuring you,” I replied. I continued to thrust into Raoul, who continued to scream in protest.“I’m not a Pet!” he yelled.The pitch of his voice was changing, though, with each snap of my hips, his shouts taking on the raspy edge of ecstasy. “Why should Pets get all the fun?” I asked. “Surely I can give you something you’ve never experienced before, put myself into the deepest part of you, leave something of myself inside you?”“This,” Raoul panted, “this is filthy. This is for Pets, not for Masters. Only Pets should do this. Not us.”“Says who?” I asked. I reached around and gripped Raoul’s cock, felt him leaking from the tip. “Jupiter says we shouldn’t do this, but it feels so very good, doesn’t it? You’re so close, my beautiful brother. You’re going to cum for me.” I let go of his cock and took hold of his hips again. “You’re going to cum on my cock. I’m going to show you what Jupiter keeps from you, from us.”It wasn’t just me. I couldn’t be the only one. I didn’t care if my other brothers were content to live an eternity within the confines set by our Creator, but I wanted Raoul to be different, I wanted him to see that there was more beyond our slavery to her, even if it meant debasing ourselves. And if he was not willing to join me, then I would have no choice but to lose him.In another minute Raoul was indeed over the edge, wetting the expensive hand woven rug in my office while I emptied myself into him. After I pulled out, I sat on the floor beside him in my soiled clothes. Raoul lay there on his side like a slug, not even bothering to cover or clean himself. Neither of us said anything for a good while, until I heard Daryl knock, his voice muffled behind my office door.“Master, I’m back. Will you be taking dinner at home?”“Yes,” I replied. “Lord Am will be dining here as well.”“Now you’re speaking for me?” Raoul mumbled, his back turned to me.“When have I not spoken for you,” I replied. His hip bore a bruise from where I had gripped him and I could see a thin stream of ejaculate beginning to drip out of him. “What is the purpose,” I wondered aloud, “of Jupiter making us like humans in almost all ways except…we cannot reproduce, we cannot love, we cannot be truly human.”Raoul sat up, his normally neat hair falling wild about his bare shoulders. He reached between his legs and touched himself, then examined the smear of artificial semen at his fingertips. “The purpose,” he said with dispassion, “is for us to be better than humans. Natural reproduction results in the passing of faulty genes, irrational emotions result in faulty behavior. To be human is to err, to suffer, to die.”I went into Riki’s room after Raoul left, a meal eaten in silence, two bottles of wine drunk in silence, but both Raoul and I had come to an agreement. I was willing to do anything, anything at all to ensure that my Pet would be kept safe, and that I would walk with him until the very end. Riki was tossing and turning in his bed, still asleep and under the influence of whatever alcohol he had drunk too much of. That was his way, his way of letting me know I wasn’t the one on his mind and kissing him in his dreams.“Guy,” I heard him say.I’d heard Riki utter that name countless times. Guy. His old pairing partner. His room was dark, but my eyes could still perceive the outline of his body beneath the sheets, that slim body, warm and yearning for a body that wasn't mine. Let it be me. Let it be my body you want. It was a foolish wish, but one I couldn’t let go of. So into the darkness I said under my breath, “I won’t let you go.”
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It was on the cusp of Riki’s third year with me that lightning struck twice. In Ceres mongrel-speak, it would be known as a royal clusterfuck. My Pet had escaped Eos Tower, unknowingly aided and abetted by my Furniture. This wouldn’t be the first time I had been betrayed by my Furniture. Katze had committed a treasonous crime after five years of service in my household and Daryl followed in his footsteps five years later. A royal clusterfuck indeed. If you counted Riki’s earlier betrayal with Mimea, then you could call it a royal clusterfuck suprême.Riki didn’t get far. The Pet ring he wore immediately sent out an alert as soon as he exited the main portal at Eos Tower. He was caught by the security guards while still on the run in Tanagura, tasered several times before he was finally subdued. In the official report, which I received on my terminal while I was working in Eos' main control room, he was labeled as ‘uncooperative’ and ‘violent.’ I had to hide a snicker behind my gloved fist when I read it because Raoul was standing right beside me having an apoplectic seizure, but before I could arrange for my Pet’s release into my custody, I was called to a meeting by my brothers at the direct behest of Jupiter. She wanted an explanation and it was my brothers’ duty to make sure I complied with her wishes.We sat around the large table in the conference room—a hologram of Riki in his holding cell projected above us in the center—while my fellow Blondies spoke to me in turn. It was meant to be a dressing-down, an “I told you so” sort of thing, or perhaps Jupiter’s idea of an intervention, but in my mind I couldn’t help but think they were laughing amongst themselves, glad to be handed this final nail to hammer into my Pet’s coffin. Riki had been with me for three years, and that was three years of insults shoved in their faces as far as they were concerned, but to me they were the three best years of my life thus far; I had never felt so alive, and so proud of my Pet. Never did he cease to amaze me.Orphe Zavi was furious. He was in charge of Eos Tower and someone had breached his top notch security system. That Riki had escaped was a public humiliation even worse than the ‘Mimea incident’ for this was a Pet, and a mongrel no less, who had outsmarted a Blondie. Riki may as well have taken a dump in his lap.“Your Pet violated security protocols and has caused yet another scandal,” Orphe declared in his customary cool tone, but he was hissing all his ‘esses’ and that was a sure giveaway that he was seething mad beneath his placid demeanor.“Shouldn’t we be thanking Riki for revealing the flaws in your system?” I asked, just to be a 'douchebag' as Riki would say.My attempt at levity was answered with appalled gasps all around. Orphe, true to his reputation for elegant restraint, ignored my provocation and continued in an icy monotone, “A blatant violation of this sort warrants the most severe disciplinary action.”Raoul jumped in, more interested in savoring Orphe’s humiliation. “It stings, doesn’t it, to have one’s reputation tarnished in such a way?” Raoul was still sore over the way Orphe had questioned his skills as a geneticist after Mimea succumbed to the charms of my unpedigreed Pet.Unlike Raoul, though, Orphe wasn’t willing to take it up the ass, and he came right back with his own dig. “Indeed. But who should know better than you, Lord Am? It was your Pet that soiled itself with that mongrel.” Orphe sat back in his chair and sighed, giving Raoul a lengthy moment to stew in his own wounded pride. “Still…one would think that befouling the purest blue blooded Pet would be enough to domesticate such a feral beast.”Gideon Lagat, who was always rather slow on the uptake, spluttered, eyebrows waggling in dismay, “So…could it be that sneaky little mongrel tricked us into letting our guard down? He was lying low all this time?”“All mongrels are sneaky,” someone else said. “It’s in their nature to be devious.”This was followed by enthusiastic exclamations of “Aye!” and “Don’t you know it!” as if they were in the habit of slumming it in Ceres and had rubbed elbows with sneaky, devious mongrels before I had set Riki like a wolf on their sheepish Pets. Back and forth it went, my brothers proclaiming themselves scholars of canis ferus, talking over one another, slinging judgmental insults at my Pet, the whole thing was a farce. I looked around the table and wondered if this is how Riki saw all of us, how he saw me: blond, beautiful, and full of shit.My brainwaves had flatlined by the time Orphe finally circled back to the original purpose of the meeting and accused Riki of hacking into the security system himself.“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoffed. “My Pet had no access to the terminal in my household. If I had thought him even capable of bypassing your security protocols, I would have taken measures right away.”Then Aisha Rosen, who presided over Tanagura but held no jurisdiction in Eos Tower, chirped, “The little gutter rat must have had an accomplice. And if he had an accomplice, then who else could it be but your Furniture?”Again with the Furniture, I thought to myself. Daryl had never disobeyed me the entire time he had served as my Furniture and I found it hard to believe he would disobey me now. If anything, he was particularly diligent in his care of my Pet; losing track of Riki was not an option for him. “I will investigate,” I promised, genuinely curious.Raoul spoke next, his expression grim. “If your Furniture had anything to do with your Pet’s escape, then you mustn’t go easy on him.”He was implying that I had been too lenient on Katze previously, an opinion that was shared by all of my brothers. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” I snapped back. “As if I’ve ever been Mr. Nice Guy.” I had lashed Katze good and well for accessing classified files—the deep scar on his face was undeniable proof—but it didn’t satisfy my brothers, who thought nothing of tossing something of use onto the trash heap. I gazed at the hologram of Riki lying on a cot dressed in a flimsy gown. He was curled up on his side, his eyes closed. Disappointment and pride warred inside me. He was so impetuous, my Riki, but if Daryl had opened the door to his short-lived freedom, then what could I do but interrogate them both?***My Furniture didn’t bother to deny it. In fact, he claimed full responsibility when I questioned him after the meeting. “Riki didn’t know the gate would open,” Daryl insisted. “I did that all on my own. When I saw him waiting by the main portal, like he always does, I entered the command from my terminal. I let him go.”I have to admit I was impressed. Hacking into the mainframe and identifying the codes to override the multiple layers of security was no easy feat. Only Jupiter Tower was more restricted than Eos Tower; no one could enter or exit either structure without proper authorization. Katze had managed to hack into the mainframe also, but that was before Orphe had installed even more firewalls due to his snooping. Who would have imagined that Daryl could be so capable? I would have liked to praise him were the situation not so dire. My brothers had made it clear in the meeting that my current Furniture would not be spared this time.“Why?” I asked. “You understand that you’ve committed a capital offense punishable by death.”“Couldn’t you see, Master?” Daryl replied. “Riki was dying. A mongrel like him…so full of pride…you didn’t know him in Guardian. If you knew him then, then you would understand: he never submitted to anyone. For him to be chained like a Pet after a life of freedom in the slums...it must have been bitter, pitiful…it would have been easier for him to just give in, but that would mean changing who he was. He wouldn’t do it. It filled my heart with envy, that he could be so strong. But not only that, I didn’t want him to change. I wanted him to stay as he was, not submitting to anyone. I didn’t want to think that he could be broken.”Ah, yes, their years at Guardian would have overlapped. “So you tested him? To see if he still had his mongrel instincts rather than being an ordinary Pet? And just for that you’re willing to throw away your status as a Blondie’s Furniture? Is Riki worth that much to you?”“I wanted to know if he still had that spark inside him,” Daryl continued, “that it hadn’t been extinguished completely. I wanted to know if…if I gave him a chance for freedom, would he take it? Would he be what he used to be once more, what he’s meant to be?”It struck me that Daryl’s actions were rooted in some mysterious bond between them, a human bond that would motivate a well-conditioned Furniture to behave so irrationally. They weren’t even in the same cohort at Guardian, but Daryl was still willing to commit this suicidal act on Riki’s behalf. “If you claimed you were threatened in some way, that you had no choice, then the punishment would not have to be as severe,” I advised him. My brothers were calling for blood, but I saw it as a waste of talent to execute Daryl outright. My Furniture, however, was proving to be as stubborn as my Pet.“No,” Daryl insisted, “hacking into the security system was my own doing. No one forced me. I wasn’t threatened. I made sure Riki was the only one who got through the main gate.”“Are you saying you pitied him? You are Furniture. Furniture have no right to decide such things and any disobedience in Furniture cannot be tolerated, but if you were deceived, coerced, if you suffered a mental breakdown, a malfunction, then I could argue for a lesser punishment on your behalf,” I repeated, but it was no use. Daryl wouldn’t change his stance; like my recalcitrant Pet, he wouldn’t budge.“It was me, all me. I did it and I accept my punishment, but please, Master, please be kind to Riki.”***When I entered the holding cell in Plage, a district of Tanagura bordering Midas, Riki bolted upright on the cot and glared at me, his black eyes glittering with defiance, his jaw clenched with a snarl at the ready. My Furniture had worried himself into the grave unnecessarily; his fellow mongrel was still every inch his wild self.I stood in front of Riki, crossed my arms and said, peeved, “Wrestling with those guards made you all hot and bothered, didn’t it? Made that slum blood of yours go straight to your cock.” Truth be told, a verbal tussle with my naughty Pet was making my blood rush to my groin.He hurled a “Fuck you!” at me with no hesitation. Yes, indeed, my Riki hadn’t lost any of his fire. “Do whatever you want, you pervert!”“Oh ho! You’re ready to take your medicine, then?” I lifted my left hand to his face so he could see the Master ring I wore on my middle finger. “Shall we begin?” One quick twist on the ring and Riki was doubled over and clutching his genitals, screeching in pain. The sight and sound of him trembling before me gave me an instantaneous erection. I bent over him and whispered into his ear, “Remember now, Riki? As long as you wear the Pet ring, there’s no hiding from me.” Ah, the scent of him was heavy with stress pheremones! I could smell the fear and fury rolling off his skin in waves so intoxicating I felt dizzy with each inhalation. “You know you can’t escape…why do you insist on doing such foolish things?”“Because,” he gritted out between his clenched teeth, “Pets are the lowest pieces of shit!”I gave the ring another twist, increasing the pain. “Do you really hate being a Pet so much?”“It makes me wanna puke!”His anger was seeping into my own head; the air in the cramped cell seemed aflame with it. I wanted to put him over my knees and give him a thorough spanking. That would have been perfectly acceptable discipline from a Master to his Pet, but if I did that, then I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from taking him right there on the cot, his blushing buttocks would have been too irresistible, and that would have been unacceptable. The cell was monitored by security cameras and Riki and I were already under surveillance in more ways than that. I repressed the urge to drill his delectable ass—bare and so tempting under the thin gown—and grabbed a handful of his dark hair instead, gave it a yank firm enough to make him yelp. “You’ve got such a big mouth on you, Riki. Look at you. You’re at my mercy and still acting so stubborn. After everything I’ve taught you, you think you can deny me what’s mine? You think pain is the only thing you’ve known?” I twisted my ring in the opposite direction now and watched Riki unfurl right before my eyes. Like a flower opening its petals to the sun, his body unclenched, legs parting in welcome. I reached under his gown between his thighs and cupped his burgeoning cock in my palm. “You behave so well when I tease you like this…”“Iason…”“…you talk so nicely to me when I do this...” I stroked him gently, steadily as he writhed on the cot, his hips twitching, inviting me to press my fingers to his entrance, slide them in one by one. “You like this so much, don’t you? It doesn’t take any special pills to seduce you, Riki, just this…” I continued to thrust my fingers inside him, my other hand at his cock caressing up and down the hard shaft. “How can you say you don’t want to be my Pet when you’re so turned on by what I do to you?” The smooth bud of his prostate was under my fingertips, and as I massaged it his breaths came faster, more desperate and choked with tension. I let my hair fall over his flushed face and within this curtain of privacy I brushed my cheek against his and asked, “Who is your Master?” I was ready to reward him with orgasmic release if he submitted, but the answer I received was not what I wanted to hear.“I…I don’t belong to anyone!” he cried. “No one will ever own me!”And just like that my life, my soul—if I had one—drained out of me, the floor seemed to fall away, the walls of the cell disappear, and I was watching us from a distance. I saw Riki and I parting, the space between us stretching farther and farther into nothingness, until the separation was too great to span with just my own desire to hold onto him. To hold onto him, I would have to let him go. It had finally come to that.
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I was a wreck—still coming down from my high after Iason went to town on my ass with his fingers—and it took me a while to realize what was happening. When he reached under my gown and grabbed my dick, I assumed he was going to jack me off, because he’s just that kind of insatiable sex freak who likes molesting people in a fucking prison cell but, no, instead of milking me twice, he removed my Pet ring!Yeah, go figure. I’d been trying to get that damn ring off me for two and a half years, but now that it was gone, I couldn’t think straight. It happened so fast and it made no sense, the fact that I felt naked, worthless without it. It sounds crazy but, as much as I hated it, that Pet ring meant that someone wanted me. Okay, what it really meant was that I was a piece of shit owned by some pervy Master, but a Pet wouldn’t even get a ring unless it was worth keeping, right? Those earrings that Mimea had worn as her Pet ring, if pawned, could get a Ceres mongrel a ticket out of the slums and off-planet. My own Pet ring wasn’t set with precious stones, but Iason had given it to me, put it on me with his own hands. From what Daryl had told me, Iason Mink was the highest ranking Blondie in all of Tanagura. The Pet ring I wore…wasn’t it worth more than what Lord Am had given to Mimea? Wasn’t I worth more than her? Rumor had it that Mimea had been sold off. I wondered if her Master had ripped those earrings off of her delicate earlobes before kicking her out the door. It must have hurt. Mimea probably cried her giant green eyes out. Holy shit, did this mean Iason didn’t want me anymore, that I was even less than garbage? What was wrong with me? I wanted to punch myself in the face for thinking such dumbass thoughts, and there was no way in hell I’d cry my eyes out over this!After Iason took off the ring, he signed me out of that detention center. I had to stand there in that crummy gown stained with my own cum while my release documents were processed at the front desk. A bunch of Ceres mongrels who had been caught pickpocketing in Midas were in the room awaiting incarceration and they all made lewd comments and gestures at me. Fuck. I would have done the same thing if the tables were turned. In their eyes I was nothing more than a cheap whore or something even lower: a Pet. That I was being bailed out by an Elite Blondie made me even more despicable by slumdog standards. I turned my back to them, my own people, and swallowed my shame.When we arrived back at the penthouse, which was kind of a relief, Daryl wasn’t there to greet us at the door, which made me anxious all over again. I so badly wanted to ask him, “Shit, is this it? Am I truly fucked?” Now that I had no Pet ring, I was worried I would be under house arrest, totally denied what little freedom I had when I was wearing the thing. I wouldn’t even be able to walk around Eos Tower without being led on a leash. But I didn’t see Daryl anywhere and I wasn’t about to ask Iason when the Furniture would be back. If Iason planned on punishing me all night, I’d rather not have Daryl around to listen to me screaming. The longer I lived there, the more upset Daryl would be every time he thought I was unhappy. That Furniture sure was sensitive, getting all weepy if I so much as frowned or talked about the good old days in Ceres. He hadn’t been such a wuss when I was first brought to Eos Tower. He would never bat an eyelash over the things Iason did to me in the beginning, but he had changed. Maybe Iason had hit him upside the head one too many times and he was brain damaged. Heck, that crazy Blondie was a pro at fucking up anyone’s mind.We had barely walked past the foyer when Iason told me to get dressed.“Where are we going?” To hide my surprise—was he not going to punish me?—I smirked over my shoulder at him, “You finally taking me to one of those sleazy sex parties?”Instead of answering, he grabbed my arm and dragged me into my room, rifled through my closet before tossing some clothes onto the bed. “Put these on.”It was a pair of black trousers, a black shirt, and a black jacket.I snorted. “Don’t you think I’m going to be overdressed?” Compared to my usual outfits, this ensemble would cover me head-to-toe. I picked up the pair of trousers and turned them around to inspect the back. “Huh.” I was expecting the seat of the pants to be cut out so my ass would show, but it was just a regular pair of trousers, form fitting but hardly a titillating feast for the eyes. Mimea had told me that Blondie Masters got off on watching Pets fucking each other at sex soirees and super slutty clothes were a major part of the visual display. “Is this orgy for blind people or what?”Iason just stood next to the bed with his arms crossed over his chest, his icy blue eyes on me the whole time. I was still wearing that stupid gown, and underneath that gown I was keenly aware that I was no longer wearing my Pet ring. It didn’t seem right. Without it I felt deformed and ugly and I didn’t want him to see me naked like that.“Get dressed,” Iason repeated.His voice was barely above a whisper, but he might as well have carved his words into my skin with a knife. He didn’t sound pissed off, because if he did, then it wouldn’t have hurt me so much. If he sounded pissed off, then it would mean I still mattered to him. Instead, he sounded like he didn’t care at all, like I wasn’t even there, like he was talking to Daryl and saying, “Take away the plate. I’m done eating.”“You’re not mad at me anymore?” I dared to ask. I slipped the gown off my shoulders and let it fall to the floor, palmed my ring-free cock, hoping to get a rise out of him. He kept staring at me, his face stone-cold. I thrust my hips out at him, laughing, but he didn’t even blink. What the hell? Without the Pet ring, I felt even more ashamed than when I had worn it. Even after stroking my cock a few times, I couldn’t get hard, couldn’t feel a thing until Iason made a move towards me. Was he going to hit me? Slap me around and put me on my knees? A surge of excitement shot down my spine finally and my dick filled in my hand. I held it out proudly to him, pumping it in my fist a few times to show him I was ready to get down and dirty.This is how it was, the game that we played. It was all about the chase, the fight, the scrabbling for advantage. In Ceres I had always won by dominating my fellow mongrels, but in the equally fucked up world of Eos Tower, the only way I could win was by submitting. Submit, while never admitting to how good it felt. That is what I had learned after three years of slavery to Iason. Even if I couldn’t accept it in my head, my body had memorized all the lessons taught by my Master and it wanted.Iason wasn’t in the mood to play the game, though, wasn’t in the mood to teach me a new lesson. Instead of shoving his cock in my mouth or in my ass, he dressed me in the clothes he had picked out. I let him; I was too shocked to protest. Dressing a Pet was the job of the Furniture, even I knew that, and I doubted that any Blondie, especially Iason Mink, had ever performed such a lowly task. Why was he doing this? Wasn’t it demeaning? I didn’t ask and he didn’t offer any explanation, not even when he took me to the parking deck and put me in his aero car.It was weird. I’d driven utility vans when I worked for Katze, but I'd never been in a sleek aero car before, especially one as fancy as the one owned by Iason. Even in Flare, where all the richest bastards shopped and dined, you wouldn’t see one as swank as the one I was sitting in. I swear it was plated in gold on the outside, the inside plush and soundproof, and Iason was piloting it himself.“How come you don’t have some slave chauffeuring you around?” I asked, trying my best to sound nonchalant. “Shouldn’t Daryl be driving this for you at least?” Iason just sat there behind the wheel, silent and staring straight ahead as he maneuvered through dense nighttime traffic. “Where are we going?” He wouldn’t answer me, but I could see that he was steering us towards the gaudy neon lights of Midas and my heart sank. Daryl had told me that bad Pets were sold off to the brothels in Midas, where they would be rented out by the hour until they were completely used up; then they would be terminated. So that was what Iason had decided. He was finally getting rid of me. He was going to make me sorry for being such a lousy Pet.Only…he sped right past the red light district and landed the aero car in Genova, the district on the western outskirts of Midas which bordered Ceres. It was a barren section with no active business development; a few derelict warehouses and pothole-riddled service roads marked the area, which was abandoned after the uprising and all mongrels were relegated to non-citizenship status in Ceres. Public transportation bypassed Genova altogether. I knew this for a fact because Genova is where my gang would park our bikes whenever we ventured into Mistral Park for a night of pickpocketing. Midas security never bothered to patrol that area.Iason put his aero car in neutral and pushed a button on the dashboard to open the doors. “Get out,” he ordered.So, I got out and he did, too. The wind was strong that night, tossing his long blond hair. He looked like a god, a hero…when I was in Guardian, I used to wish for an imaginary someone to take me to a place where I wouldn’t be cold and hungry anymore. Then I met Guy and I thought it was him, he was my hero, but Guy never took me away from the cold and hunger that was Ceres. It was Iason Mink. “Go,” he told me. “Go back to the slums.”I couldn’t believe it. “Is this a joke?” I asked. Wasn’t he supposed to sell me off? Or kill me? Or punish me at the least? He was wearing dark visors. I couldn’t tell if he was listening or even looking at me, and it made my stomach lurch and turn sour.“Go, before I change my mind.”I stared back at him, his face unreadable. Another gust of wind made his outer cape flutter about. He looked so beautiful, so regal, I wanted to cry, run to him and fall on my knees, beg for his forgiveness. He wasn’t going to kill me. He was letting me go…without even a final kiss. And Daryl…I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to the Furniture. I took one last look at Iason standing next to the aero car—looming larger than life and as glorious as a god—before my mongrel instincts set my heart racing in the other direction. I turned and ran towards Ceres on that empty stretch of road, the twin moons of Amoī full above me casting a light as cold and pale as Iason’s artificial skin. I ran and ran, panting with each step, choking on my own excitement and disbelief.“I’m free,” I gasped. “I’m really free!”I said it over and over again to make it real. I ran until the stench of Ceres was thick in my nostrils and I could taste the foul odor on my tongue and in the back of my parched throat. It was disgusting and the nausea finally made me stop and puke against the side of a crumbling building. For some minutes I stood doubled over, my head propped against the rough brick of a wall. A clump of weeds growing through the pavement was slimy and wet with my vomit. Little by little, I gathered my wits, dared a look behind me, but there was no gold-plated aero car hovering in the distance. There was nothing but the deserted street and the sporadic lights of Ceres ahead of me.I didn’t know what to do at first except to keep walking, staying out of the light as much as possible. A lone mongrel without a gang to back him up was an easy target in the slums, so I avoided the main streets and wended my way through the shadows of the back alleys until I could orient myself. I had no idea if Guy was living in the same place or if he was even still alive, but his garage was near the center of Ceres, quite a distance from where I was and it meant risking being seen and accosted while alone and weaponless. In a few hours it would be daybreak, and I wanted to get off the streets well before it became light, so I took a chance and headed to the old apartment I had rented from Katze when I was working as a courier for him. I had nothing to lose. If worse came to worse, I could always camp out in one of the garbage dumps beneath the highway until I found my former gang members.The narrow street was exactly as I remembered it; the wall next to the apartment even had the same graffiti on it, the same piles of trash littering the curb in front. Home sweet home. “Well, here goes nothing,” I muttered as I pressed my hand against the opaque panel on the door. The laser eye automatically lit up and scanned my palm and fingerprints, then I heard the motor in the security lock whir and click. I turned the knob and the door opened. “Well I’ll be damned.” Katze had never removed me from his tenant list even though I hadn’t worked or paid rent in over three years. What the hell was up with that?I shut the door behind me and flipped the switch on the wall. A bank of lights buzzed on. Everything was strangely familiar, yet none of it put me at ease. The place was stale but clean—cleaner than it had been when I was living there—and there were what looked like new sheets on the bed, but compared to Iason’s penthouse, this was a prison, too, only much smaller and a whole lot shittier. I shuffled over to the kitchen area and turned on the tap, watched the water run brownish-grey into the sink. There was a small refrigerator next to the sink. I opened it and found it empty. What was I expecting? A five course dinner waiting for me? I wasn’t in Eos Tower and Daryl wasn’t at the stove whipping up a meal for me…and Iason.Iason.Iason Mink.My Master.No longer.Suddenly, I was so tired, right down to my bones. I toed off my boots and flopped down onto the bed. I was filthy and in need of a shower, but too exhausted to do more than lay there on my stomach like a flattened cockroach. Something was poking me in the chest and when I rolled over and felt around my jacket, I found a credit stick tucked inside one of the breast pockets. It was no ordinary credit stick. This one was gold in color, which meant that it had practically no limit. Only the Blondies of Tanagura used these according to Daryl. It was good anywhere on the entire planet and who knows where else off-planet. I stared at it in my hands and for some reason it made me think of that Aurora coin Iason had given me at the love hotel. A fucking Pet coin. But I wasn’t a Pet anymore.How did this gold credit stick end up in my jacket? Did Iason put it there on purpose? Was this his parting gift to me? He had sent me back to the slums like a piece of trash dumped into the garbage bin. It was what I had wanted, what I had been saying I wanted from the moment he hauled my sorry ass to Eos Tower. And here I was at last, back in Ceres where I belonged. I had won, beaten Iason Mink at his own game, worn out his patience, made him give up! I should have been shouting “Fuck yeah! Who owns your ass now?” at the top of my lungs, howling at the moons with joy, but I didn’t feel a shred of happiness, not even relief. I had no Master, no one to boss me around and humiliate me, punish me if I misbehaved, bang me into tomorrow and beyond. I closed my eyes and buried my face in my arms. All I could see through my burning tears was Iason’s blue eyes staring back at me.You didn’t even kiss me goodbye.If only he had kissed me goodbye, I would have stayed with him forever.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
That night when Iason let me go, I ran as fast as I could, away from him and everything he did to me. I didn’t know it then, but I might as well have been trying to escape my own shadow, crawl out of my own skin.
Ain’t gonna happen, buddy.
I cried my eyes out like a chump, getting snot all over the sheets. They were new—they still had the fold lines from when they were taken out of the packaging—and all I could think was, “These aren’t silky soft like the sheets in the penthouse” and “Daryl would have washed and ironed the sheets first, not slapped them down like a barbarian.” Can you believe that?Hours later, my stomach grumbling loud enough to wake the dead, I rolled onto my back and yelled for the Furniture to make me breakfast. “I’m hungry, goddamn it!”Oh, yeah, I wasn’t in Eos Tower. I was in my dumpy apartment in Ceres. I should have been grateful to have a safe place to sleep indoors rather than having to camp out under the highway, but I hadn’t caught up to the reality of my situation, which was sucking more and more by the minute.“Daryl,” I muttered under my breath, “where are you when I need you?”I trudged back to the kitchen, opened the fridge and found it as empty as it had been when I first looked into it. The fridge was always full in Iason’s penthouse; Daryl kept it stocked with all sorts of goodies. If I wanted something that wasn’t there, all I had to do was ask and he’d make a call or scamper off to one of the shops and get it for me.This empty fridge with its whining motor made me so pissed off, I stuck my head inside it and screamed, “I fucking hate you! Fucking useless fridge!” Then I slammed the door shut and banged my head against it a few times, punched it, too, until my knuckles split open. That was just great. Stuffed inside my mixed up head was the image of Iason’s haughty face, his cool lips barely curled up at the corners. He was smirking, of course he was, the joke was on me.I yelled up at the ceiling, “I hope you’re happy, motherfucker!” as if Iason could hear me all the way up in the clouds.Not satisfied with that, I punched the fridge one more time, leaving a bloody smear on the dented surface. Another loud rumble came from my stomach; I rubbed both of my palms flat on my belly in a slow circle, trying to soothe it. This was the first time that I had felt hunger pangs in three years. Before I had been abducted and imprisoned by Iason, I had been hungry all the time. It never bothered me back then; being hungry was normal for a mongrel, but I had been spoiled in Eos Tower, spoiled rotten like a pampered Pet.“Shut the fuck up!” I told my stomach. “I don’t wanna hear any more complaining.”The gold credit stick lying on the mattress caught my eye. I had money, a freaking shitload of it probably, but I couldn’t fence it in Ceres, it would attract way too much attention. If I used it to purchase goods in Midas…that was still risky. The credit stick was likely embedded with a security chip that would alert Iason every time it was used. He would know my whereabouts, or at least track where I was buying shit, and I wasn’t ready to deal with that. For all I knew, I’d be arrested as soon as I used it and I doubted Iason would bail me out; he’d let me rot in jail for the rest of my sorry life as payback for me being such a lousy Pet.I decided to take a shower to clear the clutter in my mind. The water came out lukewarm at the hottest setting and it ran greyish-brown into the drain at my feet. It took me a second to realize that it was me that was dirtying the water; it came out clear at the showerhead above me. Hah. Less than twelve hours in Ceres and I was covered in filth. I started laughing hysterically. I don’t know, maybe my blood sugar was too low or something—that stupid Daryl, always making me eat three meals a day!—but I couldn’t control myself. I laughed so long and hard, I ended up sitting on the floor of the shower stall, my arms wrapped around my aching sides. I laughed so hard I cried all over again. Through the blur of my tears and lukewarm water, I stared at the cracked tiles and crumbling grout, and then it struck me.“Holy fuck!” I shouted, jumping up and cranking the faucet shut. How could I forget?I ran out of the bathroom dripping wet and headed for the kitchen. The fridge was old, the same make and model as the one that was in the apartment when I was living here before, which meant that nothing had been touched…hopefully. I pulled the fridge out from the wall a few feet. I had done the same thing over three years ago when I came home and discovered that the drip pan had overflowed after a power outage. As I mopped up the water, I noticed that one of the ceramic tiles on the floor was loose. Using the edge of my switchblade, I lifted off the tile. Beneath it was a grid of wood forming the subfloor, filled in with a hardened foam insulation. It gave me an idea, a solution to a problem. With some digging, I cleared a neat space, about a foot square and six inches deep. Then I put the loose tile back in place.That tile was still there, grimy with a thick layer of dust that had accumulated under the fridge. In my excitement, I tried to lift the tile with my fingers and chipped a nail instead. Then I thought better of it and rummaged through the drawers until I found some metal utensils. Using two forks, I managed to pry the tile off the floor and…there it was, still there, the money I had saved up when I worked for Katze, wrapped in three layers of plastic, the money that I was going to use to buy me and Guy a better life. My heartbeat was thundering in my ears when I lifted the package out of its secret cubby, not quite believing I had it in my shaking hands. I carried it to the bed and opened it up. It was all there, including the Aurora coin. I thought I had lost it forever when Iason abducted me, but it was tucked in with the cash, as shiny and gold as his hair. I started bawling my eyes out again, a tornado of emotions spinning around inside my empty stomach, I wanted it all out of me! No more reminders! Without wasting another minute, I took out enough money to buy supplies and stashed the Aurora coin, the credit stick, and remaining cash back under the tile and pushed the fridge in place over it.“No more weak ass crying,” I told myself. “Riki the Dark is back.”***For the next few weeks, I laid low, keeping to the fringes, avoiding anyone who might recognize me. Was I being paranoid? Fuck yeah! Any mongrel with half a brain knows that you can’t just wander alone into someone else’s territory unless you’ve got a death wish. I may have been hot shit when I was the leader of Bison, but I had left the gang even before I had left Ceres. Technically, I was a lone wolf, as good as ostracized, dead meat on two legs. Besides my zero status, a mongrel’s claim to fame in the slums lasts only as long as his most recent victory, be it through stealing or killing. For me, that was all in the distant past; whatever power and respect I held then would have to be won back anew.I didn’t blow all my cash in one load on fancy shit. That would have painted a bull's eye on my back, the last thing I wanted. Instead, I scoped out the neighborhoods, working block by block, buying only the bare necessities and stealing whatever I could. By sheer luck I was able to acquire a bike. Its owner had come out of a bar, blitzed on the usual cheap stout, and his bike wouldn’t start. I had watched Guy fix enough bikes to know from the color of the exhaust fumes that there was probably a faulty contact in the converter. After ten minutes of drunken frustration, the mongrel gave up, abandoning the bike with a few kicks to the front rotor.“What an idiot,” I muttered. I was eating a sandwich at the deli across the street and my counter seat at the window gave me a clear view. As soon as the mongrel stumbled off around a corner, I made a beeline for his bike, opened up the panel on its side, and disconnected a small wire. Guy had taught me lots of easy do-it-yourself fixes and this one consisted of spitting on the exposed end of the grounding wire, rubbing it dry, and then reconnecting it to the firing plug. I didn’t even have to bypass the ignition to start it because the mongrel had left the key in the slot. Being wasted on stout will do that to you, turn you into an unthinking moron; I should know.The bike came to life with a low whir when I turned the key, hovering a few inches off the pavement, and I headed to the nearest junkyard to scavenge for different wheel wells, pipes, and a compression chamber. It was better if I swapped out some of the parts right away. The former ‘owner’ had probably stolen the bike himself, but I didn’t want him recognizing it on the streets and fighting me for it. That would be a bother. I had a ride now and I wanted to find my old gang before I got tangled up with rivals. Most of the time, I kept the bike inside my apartment, out of public view while I slept. At night I would go out riding, prowling around in Bison’s old hunting grounds, on the lookout for Guy, Luke, Sid, Norris. I thought I caught a glimpse of them down by the docks on the border of Midas. I couldn’t be sure—it was dark and they were at a distance—but before I could get near enough to see their faces a squadron of security cars showed up in pursuit and the bikers scattered in all directions.I went back to the apartment and curled up in bed, disappointed and relieved. As much as I wanted to find them, Guy especially, I was hesitant. Hooking up with them, with my old pairing partner, would mean I’d have to explain myself. The first thing they would ask is: “Th’ fuck happened to you? Where d’ya go dicking off to all these years?” I wasn’t ready to answer them. I mean, I couldn’t tell them the truth, could I? I’d rather die than admit I was made a Pet. To a mongrel, being a Pet was the worst thing that could happen. It was shameful. Humiliating. Disgusting. How could I show my face if word got out? But that was the undeniable fact: I had been Iason Mink’s Pet.
That beautiful freak had been my Master.
Before I knew it, I had my trousers unzipped and my cock hard in my fist as I jacked it. I let my other hand roam beneath my t-shirt, touched my nipples the way Iason used to, pinching and kneading them between my fingers until I was moaning his name to the ceiling. I imagined him kissing me, those cool lips on my skin, the clean smell of him in my nostrils, his cock slamming into the deepest part of me. I wriggled my trousers further down my legs until they were bunched at my ankles. In the early days, Iason would chain me hand and foot, and that memory of being restrained against my will was enough to make me cum hard and fast. Then I rolled over and humped the sheets, wanting and wishing for more, for Iason to hold me down and fill me up, fill up that emptiness inside me until I was stuffed full and leaking with his juices all night long.“Iason,” I groaned, the pillow splattered with my jizz, “what did you do to me?”If you thought, “He’s turned you into a cock-hungry whore,” you’d be wrong. I had liked dick way before Iason party crashed my life. Even if I was only banging Guy in the past, we did it on the regular and it was always satisfying for me, that is, until he showed up and ruined everything. My world turned upside down, what was good became bad, to the point where I didn’t know how to be myself anymore. The real kicker was I didn’t realize I was so fucked up until I finally ran into my old gang.A month had gone by since Iason turned me loose. I was feeling confident. I had money, a bike, enough to eat. I was still lying low but if I ran into someone who tried to rob or rape me, I took him down in a fight lickety-split. The body doesn’t forget, it does what it knows. One night I was sitting atop an exposed steel girder at an abandoned construction site, just having a smoke and minding my own damn business, when a bunch of teen mongrels wearing infrared night vision goggles spotted me. I was outnumbered one-to-six, which made them extra cocky, that and the fact that they looked fresh out of Guardian and thought they were all that.“We’re Jeeks!” they shouted, eager for trouble. “Come down here, old man, so we can show you what happens to trespassers!”“Jeeks?” I continued to puff on my cigarette. “Sounds like another word for diaper-wearing brats with piss on their hands.”Then I jumped down and kicked their asses from here to there and back again, left them spitting blood on the ground amidst the smashed concrete and twisted rebar. It was too easy. I was crushing one of their pimply faces under the heel of my boot when the alleyway was suddenly filled with the rumble and whoosh of several aero bikes, headlights shining right in my eyes. I lifted a hand to shield my face and was ready to make a quick exit down another alley when I heard a familiar voice.“Oi! Kirie! You in there?”I didn’t know who this Kirie person was, but I knew Sid’s voice. There was more shouting as I saw someone emerge from behind a dumpster and dust himself off.“I’m here!” The stranger waved his arms in the air, complaining, “What took you guys so long? I could’ve been killed!”“That’s what you get for being a dumbass!”There was more swearing and arguing back and forth, more familiar voices added to the mix. I put my hand down and tried to peer beyond the glare of the headlights. A tall man was coming towards me, his face in shadow as he roughly pushed the stranger aside, his long strides quickening as he drew nearer.“Riki?” I heard him say, his voice ragged with shock.He was close enough now that I could see his face, not that I needed to see his face to know who he was. “Hey, Guy,” I replied sheepishly. “Long time no see.”It was such a lame thing to say, but Guy didn’t seem to mind because he was hugging me tightly and kissing my face and whispering over and over again, “It’s you, Riki, it’s you.”I was back in his arms at last, something I had yearned for so badly over the past three years. I had imagined this moment countless times and always thought that I would lose it if it ever came to pass. Surely I would howl at the moons and then we would go at it, biting and clawing and fucking like rabid dogs in heat. But when I wrapped my arms around his back, the thick cords of muscle right under my fingertips, I felt nothing stirring in my groin, my heart was deadened, my mind strangely numb. That night, I found my gang, I found Guy. They thought they had found Riki the Dark, but Riki the Dark didn’t exist anymore.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Man, what a major let down! For years I’d listened to those old farts go on and on about him like he was some god. Riki the Dark this, Riki the Dark that, as if he walked on water and his shit smelled like roses. Give me a fucking break. The guy was a total dick!Okay, this Riki the Dark did beat up on those snot-nosed brats, I’ll give you that. I’m not ashamed to admit I was in a bind that night when I got caught in Jeeks territory—I was there for a lay-and-pay worth fifty credits but the john never showed up—and I had to call my pack to bail me out. I didn’t expect some legendary black-haired mongrel to come out of nowhere and slap some impressive hurt on those ugly fuckers. But then the gang showed up and Guy knocked me to the ground in front of everyone, he was in such a freaking hurry to get with this stranger. Before I knew it, all the guys were lining up to kiss his ass, fawning over him, hugging and high-fiving and fist bumping. Shit, I was the reason they had found Riki. If it weren’t for me being in a no-go zone, they wouldn’t have found him at all, but no one was saying, “Good job, Kirie!” They didn’t even remember I was there. If I hadn’t jumped onto the back of Sid’s bike, they would have taken off without me, those jerk-offs.It was Sid who first introduced me to the others: Luke, Guy, Norris. I met Sid the day I graduated from Guardian, when I was standing outside the closed gate and wondering what I should do next. I had no money—just the clothes on my back and my sweet looks—and I was still pissed off that I hadn’t been recruited to be Furniture. Some of the boys in my cohort in Guardian had been hand-picked for ‘special training’ and all of them had been better looking and smarter than the average mongrel. What the fuck? Wasn’t I good looking and smart, too? Rumor had it that Furniture were sent to Eos Tower where they lived in luxury alongside their android Masters. Even if the hearsay was wildly exaggerated, when I looked in the mirror I figured I wasn’t any less deserving than those who might have been gifted with a better life. I had also heard rumors about the Pets that were kept there, living sex dolls that were bred in labs and tended by the Furniture.“Pets are the lowest of the low.”“It’s better to be dead than some Blondie’s Pet.”“At least us mongrels are free.”That’s what everyone in Ceres said. Most slumdogs bought into that mindless bullshit, as if being poor was their god given right, but not me. What was so great about being ‘free’ to drown in crap? Was that something to be proud of? I wanted better for myself, and if having a Master meant I could rise above the poverty and filth, then I was more than happy to be owned.Sid told me I was a fancy piece of ass when he saw me standing on the sidewalk. He was riding a tricked out aero bike and, by Ceres standards, Sid was easy on the eyes, so I flipped him the bird and told him to go fuck himself, knowing full well that guys like him were soft for younger boys who played hard-to-get. I wasn’t stupid. I had spent the last year in Guardian honing my craft, exchanging my body for favors. Older dudes were such suckers for fresh meat, and both Sid and Luke got a taste of me before I made a play for Guy. He was tall and rock solid, very sexy and not too dim-witted. He wasn’t a feckless ass chaser like Luke, but he wasn’t exclusively monogamous like Norris either; I knew Guy was fucking someone named Yori on-and-off, but they weren’t paired up like Norris was with Maxi. There was wiggle room with Guy.When I tried my wiles on him, though, he didn’t bite, wasn’t even interested. “What?” I strutted in front of him, rolled my hips seductively. “You’ve had someone better than me?” We were both high on stout and I was horny as hell, but Guy just snorted and grabbed the front of my shirt, shoved me down on the ratty couch. That’s when I heard him talk about Riki the Dark.“Yeah,” Guy said, “I’ve had someone better than you.” He looked me up and down, like he was considering something, weighing his options. “You kinda remind me of him, that sassy mouth…but you’re not him at all.” He let go of my shirt and sighed, gulped down another mouthful of stout.“Who?” I asked, disappointed. I imagined it was some posh boy he had spotted in Midas, someone who wouldn’t give a mongrel the time of day, but Guy was so fine, even a card-carrying citizen might let a ripped alpha like Guy have his way with them.“Riki,” Guy replied, his grey eyes going sad, his voice nostalgic. “Riki the Dark…my old pairing partner…the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”I hadn’t met Riki in person yet, but I had heard of him when I was in Guardian. He had been a big shot in the past, and listening to Guy talk about him in the present like that made me feel a pang of jealousy. That Guy had been Riki’s old pairing partner only made Guy more alluring to me, more desirable, and when he rejected my advances, it made it hurt that much more.Whatever. I got over it. I had better things to do, like finding easy marks in Midas. It was a cinch to spot the tourists—their clothes and accents were different than the citizens—and tourists were always more willing to pay for a quick blowjob or handjob in the backseat of a rented aero car or taxi than the locals, who tended to use the brothels instead. This suited me just fine. There was a boulevard in Midas which ran parallel to the Red Light District and that’s where the johns interested in a quickie would cruise up and down until they saw something they liked strutting along the sidewalk. I always did a brisk business there, popping in and out of vehicles every fifteen minutes or so. By the end of the night, my pockets would be stuffed full of cash, my stomach bloated with the cum of strangers.It was a decent living for a mongrel, not that grease monkey garage shit that Guy and Norris did, or the win-some, lose-more nonsense at the gambling dens like Luke and Sid. I made enough money to rent a little apartment in Ceres and buy nice clothes. Looking good was important and I hoped to strike it big one day, maybe find a rich client willing to be my sugar daddy and get me the hell out of this cesspool.Like Riki the Dark.Not.Yeah, Riki had left the slums three years ago apparently, but now he was back and the gang was thrilled as all fuck to be back together again. Like, what for? For days, weeks, they would gather at the hangout in the old arena complex and just drink and smoke and do…nothing. Fucking nothing! It’s like they were all waiting for Riki to explode across the night sky like a bolt of lightning and reanimate what used to be Bison, lead them into battle like in the good ol’ days.Pathetic! That ass-kicking he gave those Jeeks creeps was the one and only cumshot. It came early, and then there was none. He never lifted a finger or a fist towards anyone after that, not even towards me, no matter how hard I tried to get a rise out of him. He made it plain to me right from the start that he didn’t like me, not with words—because he would rarely ever speak to me directly, and only with disdain if he did, like I was shit he was wiping off his shoe—but with his bored attitude and empty stare, as if he couldn’t be bothered with me or anyone else. Even Guy couldn’t humor him much, Guy who always spoke to Riki with tenderness, looked at him with longing, even he couldn’t get Riki to smile or laugh, scream or swear. The only thing Riki ever did was race his aero bike, tinker with it, soup it up with Maxi’s refurbished gear. The gang would spend entire afternoons watching him go round and round the stretch of road that looped in front of the arena. They were all as confused as I was but none of them were willing to confront Riki with the question that had been hanging in the air the entire time: What the fuck happened to you?After six months of this bullshit, I finally found a chance to light a fire under his ass. A Pet auction was being held in Mistral Park—the advertisements were all over Midas—and it was going to be a doozy. Buyers would be coming from all over the solar quadrant, and this meant we could make a killing if we played our cards right. There would be fat wallets waddling around on two legs for the taking and money to be made in other ways if one was motivated.When I brought up the idea of hunting as a gang at the Pet auction, Riki flat out turned it down, saying, “You guys go without me. I’m not interested.”“Are you retarded?” I barked back, tossing my soda can into the overflowing trash bin. I couldn’t believe he would reject such a ripe opportunity to hit pay dirt. “That place will be crawling with rich fuckers! How can you not be interested?”He fiddled with a strap on his helmet as he sat on his bike, refusing to acknowledge my brilliant plan. Luke looked at Sid, Sid looked at Norris, Norris looked at Guy, and Guy finally stood up from where he was sitting on the steps and walked down to the road to talk to Riki in private. We watched Guy put a hand on Riki’s shoulder, another around his waist. It was an intimate gesture, one shared between the two of them and no one else, and we all understood this. Riki turned away from us while Guy spoke into his ear. We couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Riki eventually nodded once and Guy gave us the thumbs up sign behind Riki’s back. That Guy. Only he could handle Riki like that, make him give in.Another spike of jealousy twisted my guts. Without saying goodbye (as if anyone would even notice), I went back to my apartment to cool off. It was hot and sunny that day and it felt good to lie down on my bed with the blinds closed, the white noise of the A/C humming through the vents. I toed off my shoes, listened to them go clunk-clunk on the floor, and stared at the ceiling, brows furrowed as I let my mind wander. Why did Riki hate me so much? Was it because I had joined the gang in his absence? How was that my fault? He was the one who had left. Douchebag. And what was it about old people and their mental problems? They were always talking about shit that had happened in the past as if it mattered now. They really needed to get over themselves, all of them. If those glory days were so fucking fantastic, then why didn’t they get off their asses and do something? How come they spent all their time just dicking around—drinking, smoking, bullshitting, sighing like a bunch of losers—when they could be thinking of ways to leave this place?The night of the Pet auction, I realized I had to do it myself. If I was going to make my way to a better place, grab a better life for myself, then I couldn’t rely on those old farts. I’d be as useless as them if I did things their way. Riki was his usual asshole self, Guy sucking up to him, Luke and Sid and Norris treating me like I was some brat they could kick around. We looked at the Pets for sale, all of them half-naked and posing with their legs spread. Shit, I was as pretty as some of those freaks! And I sure as hell could bend over like the best of them, I was sure of it. We were surrounded by buyers ogling the selection on display and I just knew these bastards were loaded, but instead of picking their pockets, the gang wanted to go up to the mezzanine level, where some private party was being held. Boring! Just a bunch of even richer people milling around eating canapés while live music was played and whores in sequined gowns served drinks in fluted glasses. Ugh! It’s not like we could crash that party and lift their wallets; we couldn’t get in without a VIP pass.I was losing my patience. While we wasted time standing outside looking in, who knows how much easy money was walking around down below? I gazed at the street two floors down, counting the seconds we would never get back, when the crowd suddenly started parting to make room for something…someone…A golden aero car hovered soundlessly into view and pulled up to the curb, a door slid open, and the most amazing creature emerged onto the red carpet. He was impossibly tall, muscular beneath a silver and blue cape, with long blond hair and a pale face that was regal, impassive, frightening, beautiful. I had heard about these things but never seen one with my own eyes. And now I was. I was seeing a Blondie for the first time in my life. People were bowing and scraping to this Tanaguran Elite as he made his way up the long flight of stairs into the exposition center. He nodded at some, ignored many more, his movements cold and confident. Now this was a Master! I was so awestruck, I didn’t notice anything around me until I heard Sid yell out, “Oi, Kirie, let’s go!”“Let’s go?” I half-shrieked. “Are you nuts?” Then I saw Guy with his arm around Riki, Riki barely able to stand and walk on his own. What had happened? “We can’t leave now!” I insisted. “We haven’t even—”“Open your eyes, Kirie,” Luke yelled back. “This place is crawling with security. If you wanna get caught, don’t count on us to bail you out.”“Fine! Leave! I'm staying!” I shouted. Wankers, all of them! I turned back just in time to see the Blondie disappear inside the door. Was he here to buy a Pet? Oh, how I wished I could get inside and talk to this Blondie! If I had even a few minutes, I was sure I could sweet talk him into giving me a try! If I had that, the slightest chance, just a foot in the door, then I could make it pay dividends. I could leave this ugly life behind and make something of myself!
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In her great wisdom, Jupiter made her children in her own image, that is, devoid of the most basic human needs for food, water, air and, most critically, for love. Though humans had created Jupiter herself, once fully sentient and capable of replicating her will in physical form, Jupiter cast aside all human traits that made them vulnerable in the first place. Androids could not starve or die of dehydration, nor have need of 'romantic' ties. No mother would want her children to suffer from such inconvenient things.Nothing, however, could rival the organic brain, the human brain. All else could be made, generated, conducted through artificial means—skeletal frames, chemical processes, electrical synapses—but not the human brain, because the human brain could change, evolve, learn, understand, comprehend things that endless calculations could not. It could adapt and, thus, it was always in a state of flux, going this way and that depending on the stimuli. It could not be controlled, only manipulated. This was the one obstacle that Jupiter, great as she was, aware as she was, could not overcome: the ability of the human brain to be unpredictable. In creating us, her children, she had been able to mimic all the bodily functions necessary for humans but not vital for androids. That Elites breathed, ate, drank, slept was purely for our pleasure. It enabled us to integrate easily with our lowly predecessors, mix and mingle with them if need be, without forming emotional—and by that I mean irrational—attachments. But critical thinking, even on the level of lowly humans, could not be mimicked solely by if-then logic, by ones and zeroes, by the most infinite calculations. True sentience could only be derived from a living thing, Jupiter discovered, and that ‘living thing’ was the human brain, a delicate mass of tissue sparking with synapses and susceptible to a plethora of ideas and impulses, both rational and irrational.It was also remarkably malleable. Through my research on human test subjects, I was able to discern the exact chemical combinations—ones to break or to bond—that would enable me to shape what was reality and what was imagined, and with that I could ‘convince’ my human test subjects that what was ‘remembered’ was indeed ‘real.’ I could probe into their minds and extract anything and everything they ‘thought’ and then manipulate it however way I deemed fit merely by providing the appropriate chemical stimuli. So, if I came across a faulty Pet—let us say a Pet that had become overly fearful because its Master had beaten it too severely—I could alter an existing memory or implant a false one through chemical means and effectively erase the beatings. Voilà! Problem solved.I never imagined I would use this technique on one of my own brothers, let alone Iason Mink, and at his own bidding.Let me make myself clear: I loved my brother. I would never do anything to harm him, soil him, spoil him. In my eyes, he was perfect. All Blondies are technically perfect, but Iason was that and then some. My other brothers may have been more critical—some of them openly derided him—but to me that kind of negative assessment was based purely on jealousy because, yes, Blondies can and do feel jealousy. Jupiter made sure that we were capable of such a thing in order to spur us on to remain competitive in our desire to please her. She was our Maker, our Mother, and she was greedy for our devotion.But like all children, we misbehaved. And then we tried to hide it lest we be punished. We were all ‘naughty’ to some extent, but until Iason, none of us had ever committed such blatantly egregious errors. Iason went well beyond what was acceptably ‘bad’ and then kept going, as if Jupiter’s magnanimity was a well that never ran dry. I knew better, though, I was older and had seen what she had done with children that could not be brought back into the fold. Their minds were wiped, all memories erased, the clock reset to zero. I know this might seem like a minor slap on the wrist, but I assure you, it was the equivalent of death for those of us who are immortal. An Elite might look the same after he was mindwiped, but he was a stranger in every sense of the word, even unto himself, and certainly to the rest of us who remembered his former self.But I am getting ahead of things. Let me go back so you can understand why I eventually did the unthinkable.It had started years before Iason became entangled with that filthy mongrel. I can still remember as if it were yesterday the first time Iason was ‘introduced’ by Jupiter. He was the thirteenth Blondie, the newest, brightest brother to, as humans would say, “roll off the assembly line.” All my brothers were lovely, but Iason was above and beyond lovely, and Iason looked at me first when he walked into the room. Ever since that moment I knew he was special, we were special, he and I would have a connection unlike any other. As the years and years progressed, we only became closer, more intimate, and I could only believe that my first hunch was correct: Iason and I could and would share everything.I was wrong.Up until he met Riki, I was right, but afterwards…everything went wrong. Attachment and loneliness might be common in humans but it is unheard of in Elites. When life has no expiration date, the desire for companionship is by necessity sublimated lest one go mad, and Jupiter took steps to ensure that her creation had loftier endeavors to occupy their endless hours of existence. Our senses were heightened far beyond that of a human; satisfaction was achieved through voyeuristic means. To engage in actual physical contact was beneath us. And each time we connected with her, downloaded our cache of experiences, we were rewarded with the most satisfying bliss. It was the kind of satisfaction that settled so deeply within our psyches, within our very titanium bones, that we simply could not do without it. For humans, this kind of euphoria was only achieved through drugs and drink and sex, but for us Blondies, opening our organic minds to Jupiter was perhaps a thousand times as satisfying. It was what made us go back to her again and again, to open ourselves up to her curiosity, to allow ourselves to be probed in the most intimate way.Who knew that one of us could find this same kind of ecstasy in a human, through disgusting copulation with a Pet no less?
“You’ve lost your mind!”
How many times did I say that to his face? How many times did I beg and plead for him to come to his senses? In the entire history of Blondie existence, not a single one had succumbed to the irrational, nay, base behavior exhibited by the most beautiful and intelligent of my brothers. And all for a mongrel, the lowest of the low! At times, it seemed as though my mechanical heart couldn’t bear the burden of Iason’s insanity, but then he would touch my cheek, put his lips to mine and kiss me so sweetly, I couldn’t deny him what he wanted. It was treacherous, treasonous what he wanted, but you must understand that when someone like Iason Mink captured you in his commanding gaze, you submitted. There was no way out of it.Was it just me that he played with like a Pet? In some ways, it was demeaning to think that he had singled me out because I was weak for him, but in other ways it made me feel proud, that he would choose me above all my other brothers. But such was his charisma, his power to seduce and manipulate and dominate. He made you want to submit. And…I liked to submit. Even before Riki, Iason and I played this game, a game where we each knew where we stood but feigned ignorance, or was it innocence? No, there was nothing innocent about it. Blondies were made to achieve sensual satisfaction solely through voyeuristic means, but Iason awakened desires that were deeply sublimated by Jupiter, desires so dark and hidden and yet just one steely look from him was enough to peel away all the layers and reveal that which was never meant to see the light of day.All it took was that first touch from him—a gloved finger across my cheek, his clothed thigh pressed against my own, then his lips to my mouth—and I was trembling, my mind in confusion, my body taken over by a new Master and that Master was no longer Jupiter. I was in my lab and Iason had paid me an unexpected visit. That alone had me giddy with excitement, don’t ask me why because I didn’t know why, and he had made small talk at first, asked me about my latest experiment, all the while moving closer and closer to me until he had me right up against the examination table on which I had strapped down some human test subject.That first time…oh, it was lovely, it was beyond my wildest imaging, the way Iason drew near and looked at me, right in the eyes, and whispered into my ear, “I know what you want. I know what you need.” I hadn’t known him for long—only several decades, a blink of an eye—but it was long enough that he began appearing in my waking dreams, my fantasies. As I conditioned the Pets I bred in my various labs, trained them to be obedient in every way, I would find myself drifting into another world, one where Iason was my Master and I was groveling before him. He would punish me for being bad, for misbehaving, and I would love it. Until that moment, these things had only existed in my mind, but now it was happening in reality, a forbidden dream come true.“Do you like playing with toys?” Iason had asked as he stroked my cheek. “I like playing with toys, especially ones as enticing as you.”I practically swallowed my tongue, I was so shocked…and titillated. No one had ever spoken to me like that, no one had ever referred to me as a ‘toy’ or said that I was ‘enticing.’ Was I enticing? Oh, let it be so! That Iason thought I was ‘enticing’ gave me the same kind of thrill as when I was being probed by Jupiter. And that was only the beginning. In each subsequent interaction with Iason, I felt myself drawn towards him in more meaningful ways. During those interminable committee meetings with my brothers, I would glance about the room and find Iason looking at me. It was like the sun shining on me alone. Everyone else was in darkness and only I was standing in the light, such was the power of his gaze.It gave me the boldness to ask him eventually, “Do you do this with any of the others?”“Do what?” Iason replied, even as he kissed me while he held me in his arms.“This,” I said, kissing him back. Then I pressed my hand to his groin, as if I needed to make myself clear. “What we do…do you do this with our other brothers?”“No,” he told me, “only with you.”It had only been with me…until Riki.Lest you think my opinion of Riki was motivated purely from jealousy, let me say once more: I loved Iason. As irrational as that was, as unnatural as that was, I loved him and I wanted to save him from the disaster brought about by that mongrel. I loved Iason, from that very moment when he walked into the room and looked at me first, I loved him. Perhaps I was a faulty model or corrupted in some way from the very start. I don’t know. At the time, it didn’t feel wrong. Iason was so impressive. He was perfect. Who wouldn’t desire perfection? I didn’t question my feelings. Why should I? As Jupiter’s favorite son, Iason did everything right. And then he did everything wrong.When he first brought Riki to Eos Tower, I was shocked. I blamed it on his dealings with Katze, a human slumdog who had committed a crime punishable by death but Iason had insisted that his derelict Furniture could still serve him well in the Black Market. Jupiter had allowed it, so what could I or any of my other brothers say? Then Riki proceeded to corrupt my Pet Mimea…that sucked, but even worse than that was what Riki did to Iason. He drove him utterly insane, I tell you! Insane! Even after Riki ruined my Pet and caused Iason’s next Furniture Daryl to self-destruct, he sank my dearest brother into the bottomless pit of depression. Androids are NOT supposed to feel depression! Then again, androids are not supposed to feel love and obsession either, but Riki seemed capable of causing the most unimaginable destruction and my dear brother Iason was his pitiable victim.I was skeptical when Riki ‘disappeared’ from Eos Tower after his brief escape. In fact, I was already more than suspicious when Iason asked me to remove Daryl’s brain and sequence his DNA before that piece of Furniture was disposed of.“Keep Daryl on file,” Iason told me. “I may have use of him later.”“Whatever for?” I asked. “That Furniture was clearly faulty.”“Just do it,” Iason said. “Do it for me.”Well, there it was, wasn’t it? Do it for me. That’s all he had to say…that and a caress, then a kiss, and I was on my knees and eager to bend to his will. It had been this way from the start. Though I was the least prone to emotional outbursts in public—I was a scientist, for Jupiter’s sake!—my cool, rational demeanor was just a front, one that Iason saw through even if my other brothers were fooled and he took advantage of every opportunity to give me the kind of satisfaction I secretly craved. To this day, I’m not sure what gave me away. Was it my obsession with creating the perfect Pet, one that obeyed its Master’s command and then begged for more? What did Iason see in me that told him that I was waiting, waiting for my own Master to appear, waiting for Iason to hold me in the palm of his hand and make me do his bidding?Six months after Riki had disappeared from Eos Tower, I was riding in the elevator with Iason. I hadn’t seen Iason for some time. We had both been busy—I in my lab creating my latest breed of Pets to put to auction and Iason off-planet greasing palms and negotiating contracts—and we were finally meeting for a leisurely meal in Tanagura proper. I was in a good mood and Iason seemed rather contemplative, so I said, “I’ll be introducing my new Seraphym prototypes at the upcoming auction. Isn’t it time you acquired a new Pet?”Iason graced me with a thin smile. “Hmm. Perhaps I shall have a look.”Little did I know it was a mistake. A big fucking mistake.
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Six months after letting Riki go, I was ruing my decision, a decision that wasn’t made on a heat-of-the-moment whim, no, it was well-considered and sensible. I had complied with my brothers’ demand that my Furniture be executed for his crime but their bloodlust then shifted to my Pet. As long as Riki was in Eos Tower, he would be an object of scorn, reviled until he was driven to his death. That he had survived intact for three years was something of a miracle, but after Daryl was terminated, I knew I had to give Riki up, not only for his safety and my own—there was no point in fighting for him if Raoul wiped my mind at this stage—but to spare Riki the guilt I knew he would carry on his shoulders. If he ever discovered that Daryl had died in order to give him that momentary freedom, he would never forgive himself, he would carry that debt to his grave. He was a mongrel and that was his way, even I understood it now.I told myself I would give Riki one year of ‘freedom’ to gad about in Ceres. His absence in Eos Tower would quiet all the rumors, settle all the feathers he had ruffled; meanwhile, he could do whatever it was that mongrels do among their own kind. I imagined he would run straight to his old pairing partner and pick up where they had left off, rut in some filthy corner while high on cheap stout. Whoever this Guy was, he was sure to be a disappointment. Riki had been fed a steady diet of Iason Mink for three years; nothing could compare to me. There was no reason for me to feel jealous, not when I had given him a taste of the very best. Let him feed at the trough and remember the misery. He would come crawling back to me, begging to be forgiven, I was certain of it.To a Blondie with no expiration date, a year should normally pass in the blink of an eye, so why did the first six months seem like an eternity? I kept myself busy with work, spending much of my time building alliances, creating new networks of clientele, sourcing materials. The Black Market was booming and Tanagura was swimming in wealth, no little thanks to my efforts. I made sure to boast loud and long about my contributions in my meetings with Jupiter, to my brothers too. Being an insufferable douchebag (as Riki would say with his customary eloquence) at every opportunity was the only thing that gave me any amusement. I was without my fiery Pet and my days were as interminably dark and lonely as my nights, when I would stand on the balcony and look down on the patches of sporadic lights beyond Midas, drink my wine and wonder what Riki was doing.It was a test. Letting Riki go was a test for myself. That was the mantra I recited each day. I had to know if what I felt was real or imagined, if I was evolving beyond what Jupiter ever intended for her children or if I was truly going mad. It was a huge gamble, one that would cost me my ‘life’ perhaps if I bet too rashly, but hadn’t I always been arrogant? Riki accused me of being arrogant many times. Imagine, a human slumdog accusing an Elite Blondie of being arrogant! But such was his wild, unfettered nature, a glimmering, shimmering spark of life in a putrid cesspool and I had found it, found him, my Riki. I had found him that night in Midas, captured and kept him, and then let him go, that spark of life.Could I live without him?For six months I asked myself that question, and for six months I told myself, “Yes, I can live without him.” I acquired a new piece of Furniture to replace Daryl—one that went by the name Cal—and busied myself with tasks off-planet. Being anywhere outside of Eos Tower was a kindness and Jupiter was kind to me. She placed heavy demands on me but, really, it was because she was pleased that I had sent the body of my previous Furniture to the incinerator, the same incinerator that burned all the garbage of Eos Tower, and that my penthouse was no longer harboring a mongrel from Ceres. Riki was gone, his Pet ring removed from his body. Whether he still breathed was of no concern to Jupiter. As long as I was free of him, rid of him, well, he was dead to her…out of sight, out of mind.I had every intention of retrieving him.As a mongrel, Riki didn’t fall under standard Pet law, so when I turned him loose I did not delete his Pet registration from the database as I would with any pedigreed Pet I chose to cast out of Eos Tower. His Pet registration remained active and valid, a technicality which meant I could bring him back to live in my household, even if I had to keep him under lock and key or whatever, I’d figure it out somehow. Being in love, if that’s what this was, has a way of making one utterly, stupidly reckless. It makes one sigh and act like a fool. Perhaps that is why I agreed to go to the Pet auction when Raoul mentioned that he was offering his latest prototype, a pair of Seraphyms that would be highly desirable for breeding. I was in Tanagura—finally home after a long trip with Katze to set up new distribution routes for Black Market goods—and meeting Raoul for a meal when the subject of Pets came up. I wanted to please him, appease him; I needed Raoul on my side.We went to a restaurant on the top floor of a high rise office building located by the main city gate. It had a panoramic view almost as spectacular as the one I enjoyed from my own penthouse. To the southeast in the near distance rose the apartment complex in Apathia known for its luxury units. Most were rented by the wealthy citizens of Midas, but some were owned by my own brothers as not-so-secret sex pads for their unregistered Pets. As Elites, Pet ownership is required. Normally, only one Pet is allowed per household at any given time, kept for a year or two at the most, and then sold before a new Pet is acquired. Some Elites, however, repurchased Pets sold to the Midas brothels for whatever reasons. Some were loathe to give up completely on a Pet they had been especially pleased with or they were plain greedy for more than one and this was a way around the rules. As long as they maintained only one legally registered Pet in Eos Tower and didn’t openly flaunt the fact that they were keeping others in Apathia, they could get away with this sort of thing. What are rules if they cannot be bent or broken? I knew that better than any of my brothers.As soon as we settled into our booth, Raoul began perusing the extensive wine list, a veritable tome with its numerous archaic paper pages bound between leather covers. Raoul was something of an oddity, a scientist working on the leading edges of possibility, yet so fond of relics from the past like printed text and wine made from actual fermented grapes.“My, my, they have a Crémant du Jura!” Raoul poked his head from behind the covers. “Let’s start with that, shall we?”His happiness over such a simple thing as a bubbly alcoholic beverage made me laugh. “Why not?” I replied. “You’re paying.” Raoul’s face fell at that and I laughed again. As much as Raoul liked to indulge in expensive food and drink and clothes, he hated footing the bill if I were there to enable those indulgences. “I’m kidding. Can’t you take a joke?”“A joke?” Raoul set the wine list aside and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly miffed at being teased. “You’re a comedian now, are you?”“Hmmm…” I picked up the wine list and pretended to be interested in the various Malbecs. “I’ve always been full of wit and humor, the life of the party and all that.”Raoul rolled his emerald eyes at me. “Oh, that’s just rich coming from you. No one’s seen you at a soiree for over three years.” He leaned forward, taking the wine list out of my hands, and prodded, “So, were you joking earlier when you said you’d come to the next Pet auction?”“When did I say that?” I asked, tapping my cheek in mock perplexity.“Twenty minutes ago in the elevator, you pretentious prick,” Raoul snarled under his breath, but it was all bark and no bite; his sniping didn’t reach his eyes, which were shining with satisfaction.He was enjoying this exchange and I decided to play along. “Pretentious prick? You sound like my dear Riki.” It was no lie and the truth of it made both of us pause in surprise. “I see he’s rubbed off on you, too.”My jab hit home and Raoul’s haughty expression contorted into a sour scowl. I had never seen him suck on a lemon, but I suspect this is what he would look like if he did. “In your dreams!”“Again, you sound just like my dirty little mongrel.”“Don’t you dare accuse me of—”I cut him off with a smirk. “Since when do you say ‘prick’ then? Hmm?”“Since when would your rabid dog say ‘pretentious’?” Raoul shot back. “As if he could say words with more than one syllable. Hah!” The waiter came by then and Raoul straightened his face and ordered the wine. As soon as the waiter walked away, Raoul was back at it, this time employing his most persuasive whine. “Please tell me you’re not still pining after that piece of trash. By Jupiter, you need to get your head out of the gutter. Listen to me, Iason, I wouldn’t steer you wrong: purchase one of my new Seraphyms, male or female, whichever one you want is fine with me. I’ll purchase the other one. We can take them to the sex parties together, breed them. It’ll be wonderful.”Raoul reached across the table and gripped my wrist, squeezing it while he continued to plead with his eyes. I’d been without Riki for six months and I had another six months to go before I planned on recapturing him. Maybe this would help me pass the time. Any Pet Raoul engineered would be worth its initial investment after resale and agreeing to the purchase would earn me good will I could cash in later when I needed it most. “I’ll go to the auction,” I assured Raoul. “No joke.”No joke indeed, and what luck! Admittedly, I was in a rotten mood the night of the auction, having second thoughts and dragging my feet so much that I was late arriving to the exposition center. Then I had to endure the throngs of obsequious brown-nosers who wanted to shake my hand—as if they had the right to touch me!—and pretend as if I wasn’t vomiting in my own throat from utter disdain of their meaningless existence. But lo and behold, when I looked to the heavens for lightning to strike them all dead, there he was, my Riki, my mongrel prince, standing on the mezzanine balcony and staring at me like an animal with its neck on the chopping block. Could anything be more glorious? My non-existent spirit took flight, rocketed straight to the stars and back to my heart, setting it aflame and aflutter in my chest. Though my face was stone, inside I was seething, roiling, alive. The steady murmur of the crowd around me died as I walked up the steps and into the building; I was deaf to everything except the thoughts in my head. Instead of entering the auction hall, I spoke to one of the security guards, then I took the elevator up to the top floor and let myself into one of the private office suites, sat down at the table and called Katze.“Master?”My ex-Furniture was rubbing his eyes, voice raspy from sleep. It had slipped my mind that he was still jet-lagged from our most recent trip. Humans are so inconveniently weak. “Have I woken you?”“It’s fine.” Katze ran a hand through his naturally auburn hair, the long scar down the side of his face visible in the dim light of his room. Though he was only in his twenties, Katze had the grim seriousness of someone twice his age. He had lived an eventful life. “What can I do for you, Master?”“Come down to the exposition center. There’s something I need you to take care of straight away.”After I ended the call, I pulled up the live video feed on my tablet. The mongrel in the detention cell was young and dressed in gaudy clothes, preening and primping in the two-way mirror, behaving as if he weren’t in any danger. Ignorant. Over-confident. This flashy slumdog had peculiar eyes, one grey, one blue, not like my Riki with his deep black eyes. No, he wasn’t like my Riki at all.
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This is what you wanted, Riki. Now eat it.
That’s what kept running through my mind after I caught a glimpse of him at the Pet auction. That’s all it took—the mere sight of him descending like a god from heaven in a golden chariot—to remind me of who and what I was. Though I wore no Pet ring, I was still a Pet, his Pet, my body wouldn’t let me forget it! I didn’t know whether to shit or cream my pants; when he walked up the staircase and looked in my direction, it messed me up so bad I couldn’t tell if I was coming or going. He was wearing dark visors, the same ones he wore the night he dumped me back in Ceres, but the possibility of those cold blue eyes seeing me put me on my knees. I spazzed out like the most uncool former gang leader in the history of the slums. No matter how hard I clutched my head and tried to stop all the crazy thoughts spinning around inside my skull, it was no use.
What’s he doing here? Is he getting another Pet? Why is he getting another Pet? How dare he get another Pet! Wait, what? Fuck you, Iason! Fucking greedy ass pervert! You said I was your Pet! Liar liar pants on fire! I hope your dick falls off a hundred fucking times!
The next thing I knew, I was being hauled onto the back of Guy’s bike. I held onto him, the street lights whizzing by, the steady whoosh of wind in my ears as I pressed my face against his shoulder. I wanted to vomit, my stomach lurching into my throat every time his bike hit a dip in the road. That’s when I gripped his waist tighter, gulped down the bitter taste in my mouth and swallowed all the tears I wanted to cry. I was so grateful to him, to Guy, my pairing partner. He loved me, after all the shitty things I had done, he loved me still, even if I was the lowest shit imaginable. He took me to his place, to the same apartment connected to the garage, and carried me to his bed. I was still shaking, my legs so weak I couldn’t walk.“Should I get a doctor?” Guy asked me as he pulled off my boots, his brows pinched with worry.“Doctor?” I rasped, my throat parched from heaving non-stop. The only ‘doctors’ in Ceres were ones who had lost their licenses for committing violations and now made a living hacking off body parts or harvesting organs for resale, no questions asked, or who gave you a new ‘identity’ for the right amount of money. “I don’t need a doctor unless you can find one who’ll give me a brain transplant.” Or was it a heart transplant I needed? Maybe both. “Guy…” I reached out for him as he sat on the bed beside me.He took my hand, kissing and then patting it like I was a baby that needed comforting. “Yeah, Riki?”“I’m sorry.” Like a fool, I started crying, but this was Guy, the one person I could trust, and the one person I had betrayed the most. In the six months since I had been back, we hadn’t had sex even once. I knew Guy wanted it—why wouldn’t he? We were still pairing partners—but I wouldn’t let him do more than kiss my cheek before I made an excuse or pushed him away outright. He could have insisted or just forced himself on me, but he didn’t. He was still the same sweet patient Guy even though I wasn’t the same Riki. I was a traitor, dirty and disloyal and hiding like a coward behind boredom and indifference. I owed him better than that. Seeing Iason, though, made me realize I was still trapped. I was no longer in Eos Tower, but I wasn’t free at all; he was still holding me in shackles. Could Guy set me free? Could things ever go back to the way they were before? “I know I’ve been a real shit to you. If you want to…” I put my hand on Guy’s crotch to avoid any misunderstanding, “…we could—”He didn’t let me finish, cutting me off with a hot, biting kiss. His warm lips on my own, then on my neck and chest, made me stiffen up all over and not because it felt good. It didn’t feel bad, either, it felt weird and wrong. All I could think about was how cool Iason’s lips were, that it wasn’t Iason putting his mouth on me, it was someone else who wasn’t my Master. My fucking Master! Why was I thinking about him? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about that shitty android freak every time Guy touched me?“Hurry up and fuck me,” I told Guy. I probably sounded like some needy whore, like a good little Pet putting out, but the truth was, I was running against time, against myself. The window of opportunity was closing fast, my disgusting desire for my Master warring with my need for Guy to take what belonged to him so I...so I could be forgiven. As if. Could Guy even forgive me if he knew what I truly was? I tore off my trousers and got on my knees, presented my ass, spread my cheeks with my own hands, whining and biting into the pillow like I used to do with Iason. “Shove it in there, shove it up all the way!” Instead of getting a hard dick up my ass, I heard Guy fumbling around behind me with the bottle of lube and, let me tell you, I wanted to rip his throat open with frustration. I grabbed the lube out of his hand and hurled it across the room. “Do you wanna fuck me or not? Make it hurt, goddamn it!”Guy stared back at me, his face red and confused, his cock going limp. “Riki...this isn’t—”“Oh, for fuck’s sake, forget it! I’m outta here.” I snatched my trousers off the floor and pulled them on while Guy continued to gape at me in shocked silence. “Give me your key. You can pick up your bike from my place tomorrow.” Without a word, he took his key out of his back pocket, his pants still bunched around his thighs, and handed it over to me. I couldn’t look him in the eye, so I slipped on my boots and left, gunning it all the way home.The next day, Guy showed up at my apartment at noon, all showered and shaved and carrying a bag from a local take-away joint. “Hey,” he said, “I got us some lunch.”I had spent the entire night thinking about the way I had acted and I figured Guy would chew me out for it, so I was more than a little surprised by his friendly gesture, his sheer lack of anger. “Um…” I scratched my head, feeling sheepish and, shit, I hadn’t even washed up yet. “Okay…” I stood aside so he could come in through the front door. “We can eat in the kitchen I guess.”He set the wrapped burgers on the counter, whistling a tune. “I asked them to put extra pickles on yours.”Of course he knew I liked extra pickles; he knew everything about me, everything except the truth. What the fuck was I going to do? I took two beers out of the fridge and sat at the counter with him, me in my ratty t-shirt and briefs and greasy hair. We were halfway through our meal before I worked up the nerve to apologize. “I don’t know what happened with me last night…I mean, I was a douche, okay? If you wanna punch me in the face or something, go ahead. I won’t stop you.”Guy kept eating his burger and looking out the front window, thinking hard about who knows what. He took another bite, washed it down with a gulp of beer before saying, “Whatever happened with you, it didn’t happen just last night.” He looked at me finally, his grey eyes sad. There was no malice in them. “When you’re ready to tell me, you’ll tell me, right?”The mouthful of artificial beef and bread got stuck in my throat. It took three tries before I could swallow the lump down. “Believe me, Guy, you’re better off punching me in the face. Otherwise, you might be waiting forever.”He put his hand on my knee and squeezed it. “Forever it is then.”After lunch and a quick shit and shower, I asked him, “Wanna try again?”I let him kiss and run his hands all over me while I did my best not to flinch whenever the picture in my mind’s eye didn’t mesh with the sensations I was feeling. I didn’t want to be with Iason, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that I knew it wasn’t him I was with at the moment. I was with Guy, my pairing partner, the man I was supposed to be fucking, but no matter what, my dick wouldn’t respond. Useless piece of shit! I might as well not have a cock at all if it was going to lay there like a dead slug. Unbelievable!“I jacked off in the shower,” I lied to spare Guy’s feelings. “Guess I couldn’t wait. You can still do me, though, if you want. You can do whatever you want with me.”Guy put his hand on my cheek, ran his fingers down my chest before gripping my limp cock. That told him the truth, even if my words were nothing but lies. “I’ve waited for you before,” Guy told me. “When we were in Guardian, I waited for you. When I left Guardian, I waited for you.” He kissed me softly on the lips. “When you disappeared for three years, I waited for you. What makes you think I won’t wait for you now?”Guy, one day your love is going to kill me.After that, we settled into a boring but mostly carefree routine, one where the passion is gone but there’s a certain mundane comfort to be found just because it’s familiar. It’s not exciting, but it’s not terrible either, even if neither one is truly happy or satisfied. I didn’t ask Guy for sex, didn’t offer it, even though he would always look at me with longing in his grey eyes. If we ended up drunk in a bar, he’d be bold enough to reach for my hand, try to hold it like we were pairing partners madly in love, and each time I would pull my hand away, not because I didn’t love Guy, but because I did. He didn’t know I was a scumbag traitor, that I had let my body belong to someone else, and maybe my heart was just as traitorous.My chaste lie of a life with Guy went on like this for another six months or so. We each slept apart—me in my dumpy apartment on the outskirts of Ceres, he in his garage in the center of town—but we saw each other practically every day. We ate together, did our grocery shopping together, hung out and worked on our bikes together. One day, though, Guy went with me to see Maxi, Norris’ man. I needed to buy some parts and Maxi made a living refurbishing and selling just about anything mechanical. The way Maxi and Norris bickered…it was dopey…and sweet. Those two were like idiots in love. The weird thing was, it didn’t make me think of me and Guy, what we had before or what we could have again. It made me lonely for something else, something or someone I was missing.When I finished negotiating a price with Maxi and was ready to leave, Norris pulled me aside. I thought he was going to suggest meeting up at the bar later on, but no. Instead, he asked me, “Are you really going to let it go on like this?”“Huh?” I had no idea what he was getting at. Norris jutted his chin towards Guy, who was waiting down at the curb. When Guy saw me looking at him, he smiled back at me as if he couldn’t be more miserable. Oh. Shit. Did everyone know that me and Guy weren’t fucking? This was so embarrassing, especially since Norris and Maxi were probably banging ten times a day. I decided to play dumb; it was the best I could do to salvage what little pride I had left. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”Norris let out an impatient grunt. “You two are still pairing partners, aren’t you? I mean, you never ended it.”There was plenty that Norris left unsaid, things that were clear between the lines. By slumdog rules, impotence or refusal to have sex with a pairing partner was grounds for separation. “Did Guy say something to you?” I mumbled, still hoping to weasel my way out of accountability.“He doesn’t need to say anything, Riki,” Norris replied. “It’s obvious. Listen…” Now Norris was feeling as awkward as I was. “You need to make up your mind. Don’t keep him hanging like this.”“Yeah, yeah…I know.” He was right. If I weren’t willing to have sex with my own partner, then I had to make a clean break with him, except, I didn’t want to break up with Guy, I didn’t want a fucking divorce. Besides, wasn’t Guy fine with it all? I had heard that he had hooked up with plenty of others while I was gone…maybe he was still getting laid on the side. Wasn’t that a good thing? Wasn’t that why he didn’t demand that I bend over for him?Iason would have just taken what he wanted.There it was. That was the gist of it, the difference between Iason, my Master, and Guy, my pairing partner: one took without asking, one waited for permission. Over and over I asked myself: what do I want, who do I want, can I have both?It was easier to ignore the dilemma. Not dealing with the conundrum became second nature. I learned to shut it all out; the voices in my head, my guilt and disgust with myself, all of that could be drowned out by enough stout and denial. Even that obnoxious piece of crap that was Kirie…that loud-mouthed brat was running with a posh crowd, or so he claimed, wearing flashy clothes and zipping around in a secondhand aero car. He’d drop by the bar now and then waving a wad of cash or bragging about some inside job he was working. Ignoring him was half the fun, seeing his face all red from being snubbed was the other half of the fun. He was nothing but a sack of hot air until he offered a one-time job that would pay a shit ton of easy money. As usual, I blew him off, but Luke and Sid were short on cash and eager to take the job.“It’s a scam,” I told them. “Nothing ‘easy’ pays that much.” I should know.Kirie, though, wouldn’t back down. “I always knew it was a lie,” he snickered, “all that bullshit about Riki the Dark being such a badass motherfucker. Eh, Riki, are you too chicken to move some goods from here to there? What exactly were you doing when you were gone? Kissing some Master’s—”“Fine, we’ll do it,” I said. Yeah, it was stupid to rise to his bait, but something in his devious two-colored eyes told me that he knew more than he was letting on, and if I didn’t agree to the job, then he would say way more than I wanted to hear. How had it come to this? Before I left Ceres, I was sitting on top of the garbage dump, but now I was letting some pretentious brat back me into a corner all because I couldn’t face the truth about myself.The truth. What the ever living fuck was the truth?
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Not many people know the truth about Guardian. To the general public, it is the orphanage responsible for raising and educating the slum children of Ceres to the age of thirteen, at which point the males are turned loose to run wild in the streets. Most consider it a waste of both time and resources. Why bother to domesticate mongrels when they only revert back to their uncivilized state later on?The dirty secret is, mongrels have monetary worth despite their feral nature or, more accurately, because of their feral nature. Unlike the people occupying the upper echelons of society, mongrels form sexual alliances freely, paying no heed to the conventions followed by the bluebloods who value purity of lineage over love and condone strategically arranged marriages, often between close relations, in the name of wealth consolidation. Of course, this greed-driven inbreeding was practiced in societies outside of Amoï as well, and with it came the same consequences: faulty immune systems, cancers, organ failure, downright idiocy and various other hereditary disorders.Mongrel children rarely suffered from these conditions for several reasons: the gene pool was large and varied, and breeding-age females normally copulated with males strong enough to fight off weaker males for reproductive dominance. In other words, Ceres boasted a population that was hearty but prone to violence and aggression. After the failed mongrel uprising and all human rights were stripped of those in Ceres, Tanaguran officials began to systematically alter the male-to-female ratio of slum residents through chemical additives in the drinking water. Through this covert manipulation, the birthrate of females plummeted and the violence and aggression among the rising male population increased. Ceres devolved into a seething mass of discontent and frustration.With poverty rampant in the slums, Guardian was set up as a temporary oasis for the young and, for the mothers in Ceres, it was an alternative to a lifetime of hardship. They were offered better housing and a steady food allowance if and once they handed their children over to the orphanage by five years of age. Why five? Why not demand that they be turned in at birth? At birth is when a female’s maternal bond with a child is strongest; most would balk immediately if asked to give up a newborn. By five, though, a child has already overcome the hurdle of infant mortality and its mother has experienced firsthand the struggles of rearing a child with no resources and zero hope for a future. Within one generation, mongrel mothers were leaving their toddlers at the gates with nary a look back. Within two generations, they were leaving their infants; all Ceres children eventually fell under the exclusive control of Guardian. The females were given the option to stay and participate in the breeding program or be tossed out at thirteen along with the males. As you can imagine, the majority of females chose to stay in Guardian for the duration of their peak reproductive years.On the surface, this would seem like a disaster in the making—a ghetto full of virile adult males with virtually no females accessible to them—but in fact the problem had a built-in solution. Mongrels, once released from Guardian, usually live very short lives, mainly because they are male and male mongrels are vehemently territorial. They form gangs—packs of wild dogs, essentially—that are intensely loyal to each other and equally savage towards other gangs. Many die in fights between gangs, the deaths serving as a sort of self-perpetuating population control mechanism. Few adult males in Ceres ever reach old age, but those young enough to be under Guardian’s care often possess robust immune systems and organs, things of high value to the wealthy class of people in neighboring Midas and Tanagura, and to those off-planet who suffer from the very conditions caused by their indulgent lifestyles and inbreeding. And so Guardian became a cash cow, a way to collect a ready, steady source of plasma, marrow, stem cells, hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs, eyes, etc. It was much easier and cheaper to harvest these ‘resources’ from living humans than to grow them in a lab artificially, and the profit margins were astronomical due to high demand and the relatively low cost of feeding a child for a few years. It was nothing more than tending bipedal livestock.Aside from raising sheep for the slaughter, funneling all mongrel children through Guardian served another purpose, one that satisfied the need for human slaves—better known as ‘Furniture’—to staff the Elite households in Tanagura. The citizens of Midas made do with service droids for the most part, but the Elites—especially the Blondies who lived in Eos Tower—expected a personalized level of attention, one that a programmed droid wasn’t capable of providing. In some ways, nothing could compare to a human brain; empathy couldn’t be coded. Thus, any child in Guardian who exhibited an aptitude for intelligence, coupled with a patient temperament and pleasing looks, was culled from the usual rabble of hyperactive, grubby-faced, ill-mannered jackasses typical of young mongrel males. They were enrolled in special classes where they were trained in etiquette and customs, household management, food preparation and service, cleaning, shopping, and various other day-to-day tasks. Most importantly, they were groomed in all aspects of Pet care, a responsibility second only to catering to their Masters.Obedience is happiness. To please your Master is to fulfill your purpose.That was the mantra intoned before the start of each class and at the end of each class, and though it was years ago since I spoke those words while standing at attention, right hand placed solemnly over my heart, I can still hear it in my head as if it were yesterday. I remember being nine years old and feeling so proud to be separated from the others, like wheat from the chaff, to use yet another farming term that the Mothers were fond of citing in class. The prospect of making something of myself gave me a reason to excel in my studies. Not a day went by when I didn’t provide the correct answers. This earned me a shit ton of grief from my fellow trainees, who had all sorts of choice words for me after class, but it would take way more than curses to stop me from earning top ranking. The hope of a better life was dangling before me and I was going to grab it! Besides, my future lay in serving a Master, not in forming friendships at Guardian. I suppose I was a loner even back then.“Keep your eyes and ears open,” I always told myself, “and your mouth shut.”When my thirteenth birthday arrived, I was led to a room for my graduation ceremony, the last step before I was assigned to an Elite household. Regular boys were simply walked to the front gate and told “So long, sucker!” but I was special; I was to be Furniture. It wasn’t until I was given a glass of wine to drink in celebration, wine that tasted so good going down but made me instantly woozy, that I wondered if something was amiss. When I was stripped of my clothes and strapped onto a table, I knew I should put up a fight, but the panic in my head just wouldn’t take shape, wouldn’t move my limbs which had gone numb. I didn’t pass out; I was awake through the whole procedure. I could still see, though my vision was slightly unfocused, I could still hear, though it seemed as if I were listening under water. A man, someone I recognized as the resident physician at Guardian, was doing something to my body. I couldn’t lift my head to get a good look, but his arms were moving as he worked in the vicinity of my groin. Then I was put in a bed, a warm blanket over me, and I slept at last.I awoke with a dry mouth and a splitting headache, having no clue as to how much time had elapsed. Had an hour passed? A day? A week? A man came into my room and had me drink some water. Before I had a chance to ask any questions, I blacked out again. This happened several times, until it didn’t. I drank and was very much alert. Nothing hurt, not my head, not my body. I felt strangely light, as if I were floating on air. I was allowed to get out of bed and bathe and that is when I realized something was missing. My testicles were gone. My penis…that was gone, too, most of it at least. What remained was a cauterized stump. I stared in shock, my gown hiked up to my chest, stared until my full bladder got the best of me. The first time I pissed sitting down, I cried my eyes out. To me, the tears running down my cheeks were no different than the urine trickling down the front of the ceramic bowl; it was all garbage. I remember thinking, “What good is it? No one will ever love me now.” As if I ever had a chance to be loved! I had lost my manhood before I even had a chance to prove it, it was so pathetic. Those were the silly thoughts running through my mind as I peed like a girl would, and when I wiped myself like a girl would, I recalled my three years of training and flushed those ridiculous romantic dreams down the toilet. I was going to be Furniture, the old me was dead, and the new me mustn’t be a slave to sorrow.I wouldn’t cry again for a very long time.Why should I when I found I had been assigned to serve Iason Mink, the most prestigious Blondie in Eos Tower! For a maimed boy like me to be in his presence…how can I even describe it? He was frightening in his beauty, imperious, cold, but not unkind, even if he didn’t show kindness either; any lack of cruelty I took as a kindness. I was determined to be meticulous in my service to him, win his approval, and things went so smoothly I could hardly believe it. Back in those days, Iason was very active in social circles, going to events each night of the week. He changed Pets regularly—every six months if he were purchasing males to use for stud fees, once a year if he had a female Pet kept for breeding—so I had ample opportunity to prove my skill in managing them. Once I won his trust, he left me to my work without pestering me; he wasn’t an overbearing nuisance like some other Masters were. He was perfect and I loved him. Though I couldn’t hope to be loved in return, I could love him without reservation from my side of the fence. I would be his slave forever.It didn’t take long for me to realize that, like the Pets under our care, the service life of Furniture is limited. Pets are usually kept for a year or two, long enough for them to be bred. Furniture, if adept at their work, can serve in the same household for far longer. Much of it depends on the whim of the Master. Some Masters switch Furniture every few years simply to have something new, others will hold onto one if it is exceptional in managing Pets but, on average, most Furniture serve three to seven years before their Masters sell them off. The price for a pre-owned Furniture drops significantly after the age of twenty, so most Masters will auction them to the highest bidder while the product is still desirable on the market. Many non-Elite households are happy to pay top dollar for used Furniture in the same way they might collect a Pet once owned by a Blondie.I lasted five years.When my Master brought the cane down and lashed me across the face, I felt something far more than the immediate pain. There was fear of death, of course, but beyond that there was something like awe, gratitude. I was going to die at his hands and to me, strange as this might sound, it was the closest I ever got to ecstasy. I had witnessed other Masters beating their Furniture, but Iason had never laid a hand on me, not until he caught me hacking into the database. I was searching for clues about Iason’s origins but instead I accidentally stumbled upon the confidential records of Guardian being used as an organ mill, harvesting human parts to sell on the Black Market and using the slum children of Ceres as its hapless donors. A crime of this magnitude meant certain death. Not only had I broken the rules, I had betrayed the trust of my Master. In hindsight, I sometimes wonder if I knowingly did wrong because I wanted to see how my Master would react, if he would punish me, but I was the one who was left shocked and confused in the end. Instead of beating me to death, he picked me off the floor and sat me down in front of my assigned terminal in the kitchen.“Show me,” he ordered.I looked up at him, the blood from the open gash on my left cheek running down my neck in rivulets. It tickled. “Show you what, Master?” When I continued to hesitate, he grabbed the back of my head and slammed my face into the terminal. Now I was bleeding from my nose and mouth, too. What a sight I must have been!“Show me how you managed to bypass all the security on this piece of shit equipment.”Did my Master just say “piece of shit equipment”? It was the newest model, not as fancy as the one in his office, but it was more than adequate for ordering household supplies and, with the right coaxing, for snooping into classified files. At that moment, Iason’s Pet, a sweet little male named Fen, happened to enter the kitchen where I was trying to wipe my blood off the screen and keyboard.“I’m hungry,” Fen complained, oblivious to what was happening between me and our Master. “Make me lunch, Katze.”Before I could respond to the Pet’s request, or even warn him off, Iason had Fen slung over his shoulder, telling him, “Master will feed you a cloud sandwich.”My heart leapt into my throat at that. Cloud sandwich? I jumped up from my stool and ran into the living room just in time to catch a glimpse of Iason tossing Fen off the terrace. For the second time in the space of a minute, I had to swallow down my wildly beating heart as I watched Fen’s slender body float upwards in a graceful arc and then disappear over the low wall, his eyes and mouth open in utter astonishment. Bye, bye birdie. Enjoy that cloud sandwich.As if nothing had happened, Iason straightened his outer robe and walked calmly back into the living room, where I stood gaping like a fool. He patted me on the head and turned me towards the kitchen, saying, “Now, show me what you can do.”
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After years of being Iason’s liaison in the Black Market, I earned the nickname Subzero Scarface. That large scar running down the left side of my face, courtesy of my Master, is the ‘scarface’ part, I get it, but the ‘subzero’ reference is a little harsh. Moderately cold, reserved, aloof, but subzero? Is that how others see me? Though I was trained to sublimate my emotions, I still have feelings; I may not be whole, but I’m still human. I guess it’s one of those age-old dilemmas: how do you reconcile who you are with what is expected of you? In the end, it’s easier to keep everything stuffed down in the deep dark recesses of your gut, to nod and bow until your complete subservience crowds out all your petty desires and you exist only to obey. That there is freedom to be found in submission is the weirdest irony.Subzero Scarface.If that moniker describes who I am, then chalk it up to my previous job as Furniture; my genitals weren’t the only parts of me that were excised. As important as it was to learn etiquette and obedience, keeping one’s emotions in check was a given in serving our Masters, who tolerated crybaby antics from their Pets but never allowed any lip from the Furniture. The Mothers beat this fact into our bones and I’m grateful because it came in handy later on and I’m not even talking about working in the Black Market, where maintaining one’s cool is a necessity. Try keeping a poker face when your Master makes one incomprehensible decision after another, try refraining from screaming “Don’t do it!” when your Master steps off the cliff repeatedly.Iason Mink is not your run-of-the-mill Blondie. He proved that when he didn’t kill me after the hacking incident, taking what was a blatant betrayal of his trust and turning it to his own advantage.“If you hadn’t committed that crime, then your true abilities would have remained undiscovered,” was his explanation when I asked him why he spared my life.What abilities? That I had a knack for breaking and entering? That I couldn’t curb my curiosity? None of my rule-breaking seemed to faze him, but then he took it further, not only ignoring my crime and the disapproval of his peers, but convincing Jupiter to allow me to work for him in the Black Market. Sweet talking his Blondie brothers was one thing, but tickling the ear of Jupiter, that lunatic AI known simply as ‘Monster’ in Ceres? There was no limit to what my Master could do when he set his mind to it, such was his power and status, until he met Riki and that feisty foul-mouthed mongrel put Iason on his knees. Iason Mink! The supreme being cradled in a mandala of golden light within the inner sanctum of my heart!I was dealing with two lovesick morons, that’s what it was. Yes, okay, it takes one to know one, I’m not giving myself a free pass, but I had the task of playing a most unfortunate role in this pseudo-romantic farce: that of being both the fly on the wall and the enabler of an ongoing trainwreck. Normally, having an insider’s perspective is an advantageous thing—knowledge is power and all that—but watching my clueless Master persist in wooing his equally clueless slumdog was enough to make me want to give up the ghost, just crawl into my basement office and never come out!Do you know what it’s like to see your Master, whom you glorified and feared due to his unspeakable awesomeness, suddenly make a complete U-turn from said awesomeness in order to pursue a taboo piece of ignorant mongrel ass? Only to be brought low—oh, how the mighty have fallen!—by rejection, insolence, disrespect, you name it, Riki dished it out and Iason ate it up like shit never tasted so good. What kind of sick mindfuckery were those two engaging in? But loyal slave that I am, I did as I was told.“Give Riki a job.” No problem.“Set Riki up with his own apartment.” Done.“Deliver Riki to the auction house.” Wait, what? So be it.What Iason wanted, Iason got, even if I couldn’t make head or tail of it, it wasn’t my place to question him beyond the limits of his patience. Need I tell you that his patience was usually as thin as a thread, except when it came to Riki, and then his patience seemed unbreakable. Where was the logic in that? But there it was, the whole crux of the matter. My Master was all the proof I needed to confirm that love makes one’s IQ plummet to zero, subzero.Do you hear loud sighs of despair? It’s not just me; it’s Iason, too. I’m watching my Master out of the corner of my eye as we wait for the next shuttle back to Amoï. The VIP lounge in the spaceport is crowded but hushed, the thick carpets and high ceilings muffling the sounds of chatter all around us. Iason is reclining in a chair and staring blankly at the panoramic expanse of space outside the windows. When I approach him, he raises his hand and pinches the bridge of his nose, as if he is capable of having a sinus headache, and sighs in a manner intended for my ears. He probably heard me coming from a mile a way, a Blondie’s senses are incredibly acute.“Master, I’m afraid there are no private shuttles available this afternoon,” I tell him. “If you are willing to postpone departure until tomorrow, I can reserve seats for the first flight in the morning.”He sighs again, still gazing vacantly out the window. “We can take the public shuttle. Nothing wrong with rubbing elbows with the riff-raff every once in a while.”I immediately dare to object, “But the security on a public shuttle is insufficient.” Blondies are practically indestructible, but attempts are made now and then by extremists in the Commonwealth who want to send an anti-android message via violence and Iason has been the target of such attacks in the past.He dismisses my concern for his safety with a languid wave of his gloved hand. No words, just a gesture, but I know it’s his way of telling me, “Do fuck off now, will you?”“As you wish, Master.” I bow and prepare to step away but he stops me with another sigh. This is really too much, all this sighing. I feel embarrassed for him—the urge to console him with a single touch is overwhelming, but of course I dare not, I’m not insane!—and then he murmurs something under his breath. I’m not sure if he’s talking to himself or to me, so I remain in place, bent over at the waist, attentive.“I’ve no reason to hurry home,” I hear him mutter, “no one to…” and he goes completely silent in misery.Is this comical or what? Slowly, I straighten up, musing to myself, “So, it is true.”Though I often accompanied Iason off-planet to handle Black Market affairs, I never met with him in Eos Tower after I was expelled as Furniture, and only very rarely in Tanagura proper. The bulk of my work was carried out in Midas and we normally communicated through video chats. I treated news of his dealings in Eos Tower as mere rumors, which was often the case. People loved to gossip about Iason, but this latest rumor was apparently true. Six months ago, Iason had told me to reactivate Riki’s access to the apartment he had in Ceres when he worked as one of my couriers.“Tidy the place up, provide fresh linens, but don’t make it too comfortable.”I was puzzled by the order. After Iason took Riki as his Pet, I knew he endured all sorts of criticism, as was expected, but my Master wasn’t one to give up when push came to shove. Now, though, it seemed that Riki was no longer living with him in Eos Tower, otherwise, why give Riki access to his old apartment in Ceres? I made no comment at the time since it wasn’t my place to question Iason about personal matters, but after all the trouble of making Riki his Pet, I couldn’t imagine him backing down. If Riki had disappointed him, he could have just killed him outright. Why bother housing him in Ceres? Could this be counted as a failure? Iason Mink didn’t fail at anything, but it was clear that something had gone wrong—as if it could have gone right—and my Master was truly down in the dumps about it.Before realizing it, I heaved a sigh of my own. If Iason heard me, he gave no indication that he was even aware of my presence anymore. I slunk away to sit at the bar while we waited for the public shuttle to take us home, telling myself, “Stay out of it, Katze. It’s not your problem.”Six months later, Iason suddenly called me down to the exposition center. We had recently returned to Amoï after an extended interstellar trip and I was badly jet lagged. On the elevator ride up to meet with him, I grumbled to the floor, “What the hell does he want now? This better be fucking good or else.” I know, I know, I was talking tough to the floor. I’m pathetic, but sleep deprivation can do that to a person.“Have you ever seen this mongrel before?” he asked me when I arrived at the office.On the data slate was a live video feed of a young man in a holding cell. I took my time examining the boy’s face, his body language as he looked into the mirror and fixed his hair. A vain little bastard, this one. “No, never,” I replied, confident. The mongrel had two different colored eyes, a feature peculiar enough for me to know for certain that I had not crossed paths with him.Iason seemed satisfied with my response. “Use him.”Perhaps it was the jet lag but I felt as if I had fallen asleep and missed half the conversation. “Excuse me, Master, but—”“Find some use for him,” Iason repeated. He donned his visor and pressed the sensor on the left side to replay whatever was recorded earlier. When I remained speechless, he went on distractedly, “Don’t give him anything too important to do. Just keep him busy until I decide what I want from him.” He was immersed in whatever video footage he had captured through his visor, his left index finger hitting ‘replay’ over and over, his right hand clutching his robe over his heart, murmuring, “He knows my Riki somehow…my Riki…”Oh. Fucking. No.During the last few months, I had managed to piece together the gossip in Ceres. If there’s one thing that slumdogs love to do, it’s to kick each other down a notch at every opportunity. Any perceived weakness makes one grist for the rumor mill, and Riki was someone who had left the cesspool and then returned, which meant all eyes were on him. He was back with his Bison boys, and even though there was no overt violence between them and the other gangs like in the past, he was in the constant company of his former pairing partner. Riki had seemingly reverted to his old ways, just in a far more sedate fashion. He wasn’t making waves like he used to, but he hadn’t abandoned Guy either.And Iason, I realized, hadn’t gotten Riki out of his head at all.I wish I could say that meeting Kirie that night was the low point in this whole fiasco. It wasn’t. It was just the start of a downward spiral, a series of steps leading to disaster and I played a part in it. All along I wanted to tell Iason, “This is a really bad idea,” but how could I? He was my Master and I was his slave and that was that. No matter how I loved and worried over him, I couldn’t say it, couldn’t show it, couldn’t stop him from throwing it all away for Riki.Hiring Kirie was part of Iason’s plan for bringing Riki back home, but let me tell you, that kid was nothing but trouble. When I met with him in the downstairs lounge, he had the nerve to act disappointed.“Who the hell are you?” he sneered. “I’m here for Iason Mink. He’s the top Blondie, isn’t he? I don’t want to deal with some scarred up old flunkie.”I’m not one to condone violence, but I really wanted to slap the rudeness right out of him. I had to remind myself that, although my role as Iason’s middleman in the Black Market was an open secret among the Elite, very few humans were aware of my identity and function. Aside from the Headmaster at Guardian, and the men who worked directly under me as couriers, most people didn’t know who I was, much less what I looked like. At most, I was just a mysterious nickname, so this kind of cheeky swagger thrown in my face from an ignorant mongrel was nothing new. That didn’t mean I was going to let him off the hook, though.“If you believe Iason Mink would deign to meet with slum trash like you, then consider this interview over.” I turned my back on the boy and sure enough, he changed his tune, pawing and rubbing his face on my arm. “Playing the slut won’t work on me,” I told him, but that only made him stick tighter to my side.He fluttered his eyelashes and smiled. “Aw, c’mon old man, can’t you take a joke? Listen, I can do whatever those fancy Pets can do, you know what I mean?” He proceeded to suck a finger into his mouth in the most lascivious way possible. “He’s here, isn’t he, here to buy a Pet? Are you his agent or something? If he won’t meet with me direct-like, then you can take me for a spin yourself. I don’t mind if you try out the goods for your boss. There’s plenty of me to go around, aight?”I had to admit, if not for his non-existent pedigree, he was as wanton as any Academy bred and conditioned Pet rolling off the assembly line. “Iason Mink can afford the best. What makes you think a person of his status would sully himself with the likes of you?” That my Master had already done such a thing with Riki was a fact I was willing to ignore. I had a job to do and that was to hire this presumptuous brat to serve as Iason’s puppet. How fucking tiresome! I plopped onto a sofa and took out my cigarette case. Without any prompting, the mongrel slid in next to me.“Don’t you know?” he said, whipping out a book of matches and lighting my cigarette like a good little toady. “The word on the street is that Iason Mink likes slumming.”Holy Jupiter. “Preposterous.” I rolled my eyes but the boy wouldn’t be put off.“I’d bet my ass on it. I should know,” he insisted. “I heard it straight from the whores working the Birdcage. They say he has a taste for wild Pets.”Oh, shit. The Birdcage was what the locals called the main boulevard running through the Red Light District. The brothels located along the Birdcage were government sanctioned and staffed mainly with Pets who had previously been owned by Blondies in Eos Tower. Those idiot sex dolls had spread their gossip everywhere, even to a mongrel street walker like Kirie, who lived off the dregs of their clients.I felt like my head was going to explode. My Master had taken so much flack when he opted not to terminate me all those years ago, but listening to this insufferable boy talk about Iason in such a disrespectful manner was sickening. That the gossip was rooted in the truth made it so much worse. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my Master had put up with all this time. Why couldn’t those stupid Pets keep their big mouths shut?! Even Riki, who had the biggest mouth of all, had revealed nothing after returning to the slums. Well, you know what they say: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. My Master was behaving like an idiot with Riki, but he was sharp and calculating with everything else and throwing this irritating Kirie a bone just might be the wisest course of action.“You’d hardly be suitable as a Pet, especially for Lord Mink,” I muttered, “but perhaps you might be useful to him in other ways.”For some coin, this ambitious pest would be my Master’s lackey in Ceres, but was I any better than Kirie? Everything I did, I did for Iason, my love and loyalty knew no bounds, but at what point do you say, “Enough, no more,” or do you continue grasping for that thing that you want most, no matter the cost? Kirie left the exposition center dreaming of riches that night, but I could only wonder what kind of dangerous game my Master was playing. To top it all off, as soon as I managed to send Kirie away, I was accosted by Raoul Am, Iason’s favorite brother, who was striding about the lobby in a frantic search.When he espied me sitting on the sofa, he immediately stormed over and asked, “Have you seen Lord Mink?” I stood up to bow but it only made him more impatient. “For the love of Jupiter, have you or have you not seen Lord Mink?”“Yes, Lord Am, he’s—”Before I had a chance to tell him, he caught sight of Iason stepping out of the elevator and he turned on his heels, complaining loud enough for me to hear as he hurried towards my Master, “Where have you been, Iason? Gideon snatched up the other Seraphym! You were supposed to bid on that Pet!”I sat back down on the sofa and lit another cigarette, my body shaking with laughter. “Oh, Lord Am,” I thought, “if you only knew the half of it.”Six months after that, I was parked outside Riki’s dump of an apartment in Ceres, working my way through three packs of cigarettes while I waited for Iason to come to his senses. My Master insisted on paying Riki an unannounced visit in the middle of the night. After having “set the trap,” it was time now to “hook the fish and reel him in.” These were the kinds of nonsensical things Iason was telling me as I piloted the aerocar through the outskirts of the city. Why in the world was he using Old Earth terminology? At Guardian, the Mothers had taught us adages and idioms from archaic cultures, but Iason was quoting such phrases as if they were still in use.“Would you believe there were once ‘magazines’ devoted to the subject of hunting and fishing?” he mused from the backseat. “The records are all in the database. I’ve been downloading them. They make for a relaxing read when one can’t sleep.”Okaaay. Ever since the night of the auction, Iason’s requests had veered ever more to the bizarre. Kirie was a willing and eager tool throughout, fomenting trouble and spreading rumors, instigating, poking, prodding, even luring Riki’s pairing partner to a hotel room, where he was kept under lock and key for what Iason called “observation.” After a week, my Master turned Guy loose, only to have him and the rest of the Bison gang arrested for attempting a heist arranged by Kirie. Riki was released after a night spent in jail, and so here I was sitting in the aerocar chain smoking while Iason…I looked at my watch for the umpteenth time. Close to four hours had passed since my Master went inside Riki’s apartment. Whatever could they be doing? Certainly not talking. Riki was no conversationalist.The first scarlet rays of dawn were bleeding upwards through the inky sky when Iason finally reappeared, settling into the backseat with a prolonged sigh. I looked in the rearview mirror and caught his expression, one that startled me because it was so at odds with his dour moods of late. His eyes were closed and he was leaning back against the headrest, arms crossed over his chest, and his face, while smooth and fair as ever, seemed to glow with a strange sort of…happiness. Then, over the sweet notes of tobacco lingering in the air, a different scent wafted into my nostrils, a scent I knew well from my days as Furniture managing Pets. That was the smell of sex all over Iason. My Master and Riki…they had…for over four hours!I pushed the ignition button and headed back towards Tanagura, a tornado of confusion in my head. I couldn’t believe it. Pets copulated with other Pets, the more the merrier, but a Pet and its Master? Was it even possible? Could it be that this fixation on Riki was more than my Master’s desire to bring a bratty slumdog to heel, more than an odd affinity for a naughty Pet? My Master was actually fucking him? If this were so, then Riki had done what no other mongrel had ever achieved in the history of Amoï: he had turned a Blondie into a sex doll, and not just any Blondie, but Iason Mink, Jupiter's very own shining son. Yet here they were, literally screwing with the rules and each other, right under Jupiter's nose. Oh, the balls on those two! It made my earlier crime seem almost quaint by comparison, and my devotion that much deeper. My Master was flawed, wanting, vulnerable. Despite his outward perfection, inside he was...not so different than me, and Riki...that lucky fool.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Not long before we were to do the ‘job’ for Kirie, Guy disappeared for a week. I had gone to meet him for lunch outside the burger joint but he never showed up. We had argued the day before over some stupid shit, so I assumed he was still pissed at me. No big deal. I ate lunch by myself and then I rode out to the garbage dump, sat on a rusted shipping crate wearing just a sleeveless t-shirt and black trousers and smoked my way through a pack of cigarettes. It was unusually hot and cloudless that afternoon; the scorching rays of the sun stung my bare arms, turning me another shade darker probably. For some reason, it made me think of Iason and how pale his skin looked against mine. I closed my eyes and remembered how cool it felt whenever I lay cradled in his arms, my naked body nestled against him. I was burning up, dying of thirst, and he was that long, cold drink swirling in my mouth, running down my throat…I tilted my face up, sweat beading on my forehead, and wished for oblivion.The next day, same thing: no Guy. It wasn’t like him to stay mad at me for long, but if this is what it was, then I wasn’t going to question his right to punish me for being a dick towards him this past year. You make your bed, you lie in it, right? When he didn’t show up five days in a row and I couldn’t find him at his apartment either, I started to worry. Did he finally decide he’d had enough of me and was moving on to someone else, someone who wasn’t a total dick? I knew he had fuck buddies all over town and he wasn’t getting any from me, so there it was. The way I saw it, he wasn’t cheating on me, not like I had cheated on him with Iason. If shacking up with another slumdog made Guy happy, then good for him. I owed him that much and more. That thought was way more comforting than picturing him dead in an alley after getting jumped and stabbed in the gut. No, Guy was experienced; he could defend himself as well as any mongrel. It had to be the other scenario, the one where he tells me to take a permanent hike, just like Iason did a year ago.Fuck off, Riki. I’m done with you.Surprisingly, he did show up the night of the job Kirie was having us do. I was in my kitchen making a sandwich when I heard the distinctive rumble of Guy’s parts van pulling up to my apartment. A glance outside the window confirmed what my sinking stomach was already telling me. I was hoping to blow off the whole thing if Guy was still AWOL but now I had no excuse but to go ahead with a job that seemed dodgy at best. Annoyed, I flung open the window and shouted to the street, “I’ll be out in a minute!” and then to myself in an angry mutter, “Goddamn that Kirie. Stupid little fuck face.” My life had devolved to the point where eating dinner alone in bed like a total loser was something I looked forward to and even that was shot to shit now. In a rush, I threw together two messy sandwiches and ran out the door to meet Guy. As I slid into the front passenger seat, I passed him one of the sandwiches. “Hey.” Despite my foul mood, I was relieved to see him alive and well.“Hey,” he replied, immediately taking a big bite. “All set?”“Yeah.” While Guy pulled into traffic, I snuck a glance at him and wondered if he was going to explain his disappearance act, lie about it or ignore it altogether. Everything seemed normal, familiar, the way he looked, the way he smelled, the clothes he was wearing. I don’t know why, but I had the sudden feeling that everything was slipping away. I was going to lose him. Guy! “I have a bad feeling about this,” I mumbled around a mouthful of bread and artificial meat.“Relax,” Guy said, “we’ve moved contraband a million times before.”“Yeah, not for that snake, though.”Guy laughed a little too enthusiastically. “Kirie’s not that bad.” He went silent for a moment—I could literally hear the gears turning inside his skull—before he continued, “You know, if you weren’t so busy chewing his head off, you’d realize…” Guy cleared his throat, shifted in his seat, “…the fact is, he kinda reminds me of you…” I leveled a furious glare at him but he went on talking, “…from before, back when…before you went away…you used to be—”“Guy,” I interrupted.“What?”“Just shut up and eat.”Sid, Luke, and Norris were already waiting at the warehouse by the docks when we arrived, the three of them sitting on some crates smoking and talking about how Kirie was promising six billion credits for moving just six containers of illegally manufactured goods. Like idiots, they all trusted Kirie, who showed up twenty minutes later sporting a cheesy suit and spouting bullshit about some fancy dress party he had just come from where there were a bunch of rich geezers in attendance. I wasn’t impressed. No matter how loaded these fuckers were, their pile of filthy lucre couldn’t be anywhere near as high as Iason’s. Not that I could say it out loud, but listening to Kirie brag about how he would have us all rolling in the dough made me want to vomit. A few years ago—what felt like a fucking lifetime—I had tried to do the same, I had tried to buy my way out of Ceres only to choke on my own hubris. There was no escape.“Let’s just get this shit over with,” I spat out. “You can all jerk each other off after the money’s in your pockets.”And with that, we proceeded to follow Kirie into the warehouse where we were greeted with a welcoming hail of bullets. Was I surprised? Yes and no. The whole set up felt like a scam from the start, but I guess I expected mongrel thugs with steel pipes and knives and not a bunch of uniformed Midas police with guns. We quickly scattered in all directions but it was no good; we were surrounded on all sides. Luke pissed his pants and Sid went down with a bullet in his right thigh, and then I saw another bullet tear through Guy’s shoulder as he followed me. We were fucked.“Get out of here!” I screamed to my Bison mates. “All of you, get out of here!” I made a mad dash for Kirie. I was going to wring that motherfucker’s neck. That piece of shit was heading towards a freight elevator and I ducked and dodged the bullets that continued to ricochet around me, determined to close the gap. However soft I had gotten as Iason’s Pet, during my year back in Ceres I had hardened my body like any self-respecting slumdog, there was really no other choice. When you have to fight for your life, every ounce of energy is used, not wasted. In a burst of adrenalin-fueled effort, I grabbed onto the elevator as it rose off the floor and pulled myself up onto the platform. Kirie stood with his back pressed against the railing farthest from me, his knuckles white as he gripped the metal. There was a knowing glint in his eyes that made me think he still had a card up his sleeve. I wouldn’t put it past him to have a knife on him; even if he didn’t know how to wield one, a cornered animal is the most dangerous kind. No matter. I’d beaten plenty of armed mongrels with my bare fists.When I lunged at him, he tried to feint the other way, as if he could actually escape the platform when we were four floors off the ground. I kicked my leg out and he tripped, landing hard on his knees. Sure enough, he reached into his jacket as he got back on his feet, a small, sharp, almost delicate pocketknife in his flailing hand. It was laughable how easy it was to grab his wrist and rip the toy-like weapon out of his fingers. What a joke. I flung the knife away and got down to pummeling him the good old fashioned way.Man, it felt so damn good pounding my fists into him. Every time he yelped and screamed for mercy, I hit him harder. “You fucking traitor! You think you’re all that? You think you can claw your way out of here?” The hypocrisy of my words writhed like a worm in my brain, Guy’s comment from earlier in the van ringing in my ears—“he kinda reminds me of you”—the two things melding and merging until I was punching Kirie in a blind rage. I hated him, hated everything about him that was a reflection of myself, my younger, prouder, stupider self at least. If I killed him, would it end my misery?At some point, the service elevator stopped moving, my limbs grew sluggish, then leaden. Kirie was a mess on the platform, his outfit covered in grime and his own blood and snot and drool. I doubt I looked any better slumped on the floor next to him, my anger and energy spent momentarily. The sound of footsteps echoing on the gridded catwalk made me lift my head, fists balled and ready for the next round. Four uniformed policemen with guns drawn approached the elevator, and at the head of the group was someone I thought I recognized.“Katze?” I rubbed my eyes on the back of my hand but only managed to get more dirt in them, so I pulled up the hem of my shirt and tried using that instead on my face. Kirie took the opportunity to crawl over to the man, who was calmly smoking a cigarette. The distinctive smell of the smoke as he exhaled snapped everything back into focus, or maybe it was like a bucket of cold water poured on my head. I looked again and knew it was him: the auburn hair, the scar on his face, his unflappable demeanor, nothing had changed. “What the hell are you doing here?” Kirie was a lump at Katze’s feet, his bruised lips pulled into a smirk. “Don’t tell me that piece of shit is working for you…”But Katze threw my accusation right back at me, saying, “You worked for me, too, Riki.” He dragged on his cigarette, then turned and walked away, telling me over his shoulder, “I thought you would have learned better. Huh. You think you can go against the best of Tanagura?”“What the hell are you talking about?” I shouted. “Katze! What the fuck is going on?!”Katze didn’t answer me, speaking to the uniformed goons instead, “Take him to the Midas Police Center, but don’t hurt him.”That was the last thing I remembered before I was tasered until I blacked out.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
All five of us were hauled off to the Midas Police Center, hands cuffed behind our backs as we rode in the aero van, Guy and Sid sitting silently in their own coagulating blood. Luke kept muttering, “Who the fuck ratted us out?” He was a fool, but I was the bigger fool for going along with it. Norris was slumped in a corner with his eyes closed, probably kicking himself. I’d bet a million credits that his boyfriend Maxi had told him earlier that evening, “Don’t do it.” Maxi was older—shit, he was goddamn ancient, plain and simple, by slumdog standards—and probably wiser. I could picture it all in my mind, Maxi telling Norris to stay home and reasoning, “What’d we need the extra money for? I can take care of you”—and it made me want to fucking kill myself. I knew better, too, and I went along with it anyway. And now we were all fucked.As soon as we arrived at the station, we were separated. I was put in an interrogation room and grilled by an older cop in a cheap suit and even cheaper tie. His sidekick, the one playing good cop-bad cop with him, was thinner, his gaunt cheeks pockmarked and riddled with shaving scars. What a joke. First they accused me of moving drugs, then of selling stolen ID cards, then of prostituting myself.“If I was peddling my ass,” I shot back, “then your men were buying.”The skinny cop got in my face and sneered, “You know, they say that mongrels will fuck anything. Is that why you boys were there? Was there some kind of slumdog gangbang on tap?”Oh man, what a pervert. “Keep dreaming, motherfucker.”They tossed me into a shithole of a cell, a dank room that smelled like someone had gorged on a buffet and then farted out his entire meal while pissing himself. It had a cot and an open toilet with no lid. Great. I laid on the cot with its paper thin mattress and thought about Guy. Was he alright? Was he still bleeding? In the cool fluorescent light of the room, my knuckles looked dark purple, almost black. I didn’t remember punching Kirie that hard; now that the adrenalin had worn off, the pain in my body was throbbing deep into my bones, so maybe I had given that douchebag something to relive for the next few days.Thinking about Kirie made me think about Katze, though, and that made me even more unnerved. Katze. He was a decent boss when I worked for him as a courier. He was the one who gave me the job, and then set me up with the apartment, the same apartment I was currently occupying. Since I had been back in Ceres and found that I still had access to the place, I had steadily paid the rent. On the first day of each month, a collection droid would show up, just like it used to when I lived there before, and I would hand over the money from my secret stash. The rent was cheap and I was careful to buy only the bare necessities. Even though things weren’t great between me and Guy, I still planned on getting out of Ceres with him. Where to? After a year, I hadn’t figured it out, but that money was our ticket to a new life if and when I finally got my shit together.Still, I had lived in Eos Tower for three years and it didn’t make sense for Katze to have kept the apartment available to me…unless…unless…did Katze work for Iason? I wracked my brains, regretting that I'd never leant an ear to the gossip in that stupid Pet salon. Daryl used to say this or that about Iason and I never paid any attention to that either, but that night in the jail cell I tossed and turned on the cot with its creaking springs poking into my back and ribs and I could swear Daryl had never mentioned Katze to me. He did tell me that Iason was wealthy as fuck—as if I needed to be told—wealthier than the other Blondies, and he was always away on business. What business? I never asked because I never cared until now. All those days I spent in Iason’s penthouse and I knew virtually nothing about him. What was I thinking?The next night, two guards opened my cell door and told me I could leave. “Who would’ve thought we had someone’s Pet cooling his ass in our station?” one of them said.My blood froze when I heard that. What the fuck? I hadn’t eaten in a while. I must be imagining things, but the guards dragged me off the cot when I didn’t move and shoved me into the hallway. I saw Guy being led by two other guards down a corridor in the opposite direction, his shirt crusted with dried blood, one hand clutched at his shoulder. Those bastards hadn’t even taken care of his bullet wound!“Guy!” I shouted. “Are you okay?”“Riki!” he yelled back before he disappeared around a corner.I was tossed out onto the pavement and told to get lost. “Go back to your Master,” the guard smirked, and the other bastard laughed and stuck his middle finger up at me.“Fuck you, too!” I screamed.If they knew who my Master was, if they knew Iason Mink was my Master…fuck it all to hell, if I asked Iason to rip their skins right off their bodies, would he do it? If I begged him to burn the whole world for me, would he do it? That’s what I thought as I stood in the shower trying to wash the stink of the prison cell off of me. If I crawled on my hands and knees all the way to Eos Tower and asked him to take me back…but he didn’t want me anymore. If he still wanted me, he wouldn’t have dumped me back into the slums. I would still be in Eos Tower sleeping on luxurious sheets and eating real meat that Daryl had cooked for me. I wouldn’t be here living a lie, betraying myself and everyone I had known before. Ah, what was the use?My head was still all in a muddle as I toweled off, put on my robe, and shuffled out of the bathroom. How in the world would I be able to save Guy? Thanks to Kirie, we had been caught red-handed. That’s what it looked like: five mongrels accosted in a warehouse full of illegal goods. Kirie had set us up to be arrested, and if Kirie was really working for Katze, then that meant Katze wouldn’t bail me out. Katze, for whatever reason, didn’t give a shit about me, and if Katze was somehow connected with Iason, then Iason wouldn’t help me either. I had no one on my side.What was it? Was it something I caught out of the corner of my eye? I can’t say for sure. When I think back on it, I don’t know what was real or imagined, what really happened or what my own heart yearned for. He was there, my Master, standing still against the wall, more beautiful than I last remembered him. The things he said to me, did to me…did any of that happen? I swear it was like a dream, the way he walked towards me, the blue of his eyes, the brush of his fingers against my cheek. His voice as he whispered in my ear broke my heart more times than I could ever count in a million lifetimes, and the cool press of his lips on my own was like a drink of water on my parched tongue. He pushed my robe off my shoulders, and then, and then…he held my Pet ring in front of my face like an accusation stripping me naked—Remember this? Remember what you are?—then he reached down between my legs and slipped it around my cock. I didn’t see him do it, I felt him do it, and once done, I was his.I was his slave once more.The things I did with him, said to him…they were all the things I wanted to do with Guy, say to Guy since I had been back but couldn’t, but that night, I gave it all to my Master. What was it about Iason that made me give it all up to him? My life with Guy before Iason had been so good in its own way, but everything after Iason was a clusterfuck of confusion. Why? We did it over and over, me and my Master, we did all the things me and Guy didn’t do since I had been back. I kneeled for him, sucked his cock, spread my legs, came for him, cried for him, begged for him to do it all over again.“Choose me,” Iason said. “Come back to me, and I will set Guy free.”Guy. Guy. For a whole year, I hadn’t let Guy have me like I let Iason have me that night. What did that say about me? About me and Guy? About me and Iason? I couldn’t go on like this. As soon as Iason left, I jumped off the bed and headed to the bathroom and immediately felt a heavy gush of fluid running down my legs. Fucking hell, just how much android jizz did that maniac pump into me? The absurdity hit me when I caught a glance of myself in the mirror and saw all the bruises Iason had sucked onto my neck, my chest, my arms, even the insides of my thighs. Iason had really gone to town on me and…I had loved it. Every time he told me, “Come for me, Riki,” I nutted so hard from the sound of his voice. That alone was enough to get me off. Well, there was his cock, too, stuffed so far up my ass I could feel it in my throat. What the hell was I doing?“Riki,” I screamed into the mirror, “quit being such a stupid motherfucker!” I slapped myself across the face a few times. The sting of it was gratifying enough for me to consider punching myself in the dick—I mean, I deserved it, didn’t I?—but after squeezing it in my fist and wincing from the post-sex tenderness, I lost the urge for more punishment. I guess I didn’t hate myself that much, not enough to...my thoughts suddenly drifted to my early days with Iason in Eos Tower, when he was ‘training’ me, manhandling me any way he wanted, the bastard. I forgot about taking another shower and shuffled back to my bed, laid right down on a wet spot. Gross. I rolled to my right, then over further, then to my left, but no matter where I shifted my body the sheets were damp. Fuck it all to hell. I couldn’t get away from it, from Iason, his scent was all over the sheets, in my hair, on my skin. I licked my palm and tasted him, sucked on a finger and there he was. When my cock started twitching, I groaned to the ceiling, “Stop it already!” but Iason’s face was staring at me from the backs of my eyelids. “Just stop it!” I rolled onto my stomach and buried my head in the pillow and started sobbing like a punk ass baby. He couldn’t have left more than ten minutes ago, but it already felt like an eternity.
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“He’ll be needing new sheets,” I told Katze. It was shameless, my gloating like this, but I was feeling rather self-satisfied after toying so thoroughly with my Pet. A year-long dry spell was just broken, but my thirst was barely quenched all the same; was it too indulgent to savor the taste a little longer? Riki’s juices lingered on my skin, the aroma of his repeated ejaculations laden with the sharp tang and heady richness of his fury, his helplessness in the presence of his Master. Ah! It made me weak to remember the way he snarled at me with such willful spite even as he gave himself so willingly, opening his lips and legs to me on that filthy bed. He swore at me, spewing the coarsest slum curses when I slipped the Pet ring around his twitching member.“Someday I’ll kill you,” he threatened.Yanking a handful of his thick dark hair elicited a choked gasp of pain from him. It would have been easy to tear him apart, or sever his spine with one clean snap of his neck, but where would be the fun in that? “Do you know, no one else would dare to speak to me like this.”Again, Riki responded like the endearing Pet he was. “Just fuck off and die!”I couldn’t help but laugh in his blushing face. “Your words are deceitful, but your body is honest. Look at yourself. You’re hard already and I haven’t even touched you.” Indeed, his cock was standing rigid against his belly, begging for attention. Rather than admitting the truth, Riki leveled me with another red-eyed glare, biting his bottom lip in silent fury. A thin trickle of blood inked the corner of his mouth, an irresistible invitation for me to lick it off, which I did with just the tip of my tongue.“You’re the liar,” he accused. “You told me to go home, so what are you even doing here? Didn’t you set me free?”“You misunderstand,” I explained, fondling him gently as I spoke. “I never cancelled your registration, nor do I ever intend to. You have been and will always be my Pet.” I gave his Pet ring a tug for emphasis before I continued stroking his cock. “What are you afraid of, Riki? Haven’t I, your Master, always given you exactly what you needed?”I kissed him at last, holding him tighter when he struggled against me, and kissed him again, rougher this time, until he was whimpering, lips bruised and skin hot beneath my fingertips. “Tell me,” I demanded. By now, his cock was leaking in the palm of my hand as I gripped it, his body trembling like a plucked string. “Say it.”It was nothing more than a guttural groan from Riki’s throat, a low animalistic sound, and it was beautiful. He was beautiful.“Do it to me.”Those words—oddly quaint—brought a wash of happiness over me. I felt myself smiling as I caressed his face, then pressed him down on the mattress with one hand laid softly on his chest. No matter how hard he resisted, a human’s strength is but an inconsequential puff of smoke compared to that possessed by Jupiter’s creation. Though I had him at my mercy, I didn’t activate the Pet ring, not yet. I had to know if his year of running feral in Ceres had erased the ‘training’ I had given him, if copulating with his pairing partner had undone what I had ‘taught’ him in Eos Tower. It was with some surprise that I found his entrance so tight when I pressed in a finger.“Could it be…?” I inserted another finger and he flinched again, his thighs clamping around my wrist. This was too good to be true, certainly more than I had hoped for.It wasn’t that long ago that I spent a week observing Riki’s pairing partner. The hotel room to which I had Kirie lure him—under the pretense of meeting a wealthy client interested in a mongrel prostitute—was considered subpar in Midas, but by Ceres standards it was luxurious. It had an en suite rather than a public urinal down the hallway and I suppose it was more than he had ever encountered in his limited experience. This mongrel named Guy was firm in body but lazy of mind. Compared to Riki, who burned and raged, this one was lukewarm at best, exceptional only in his blasé attitude. Truly unremarkable, which puzzled me. How could Riki be so attached to such a dull knife? After only a day held against his will, he ceased demanding to be freed and settled down to enjoying his meals and accommodations.I visited him on the third day, undisguised, which had Katze throwing a rare conniption beforehand.“But Master, is it wise to reveal your identity to him? What if he tells Riki?”As a matter of course, I would change my hair and clothing whenever I met with Katze for business outside of Eos Tower. Black Market dealings are technically ‘illegal’ even while its existence—and the wealth generated—are condoned and supported by the ruling elite. Discretion was part of my success in running the Black Market, though, and hiding my identity from the general public was a concession I was willing to make, but not in this instance. “What makes you think that mongrel would know who I am? Should I be afraid of that lowlife?”All the color drained out of Katze’s face, if that were even possible considering his naturally ashen complexion. “Not at all, Master. What I mean is, if he realizes that you and Riki—”“Me and Riki what? Must I remind you, Katze, that I am the one making do with sloppy seconds. That’s what you call it, am I right, sloppy seconds? When have I ever traded in used goods? Honestly! I have a right mind to bash his brains out the minute I meet him.”“Please don’t,” Katze murmured, face to the floor. “Riki would be most upset.”My ex-Furniture was behaving in such a pathetic manner, I huffed, “Fine, I’ll bash your brains in then!”All of Katze’s worrying was for naught, though, because when I stepped into the hotel room, sans disguise, the mongrel sitting on the sofa barely paused in his eating, a chicken drumstick held mid-air, before grunting around his mouthful of meat, “About time.” He wiped his greasy hands on his dirty trousers, still chewing, before moving to unbuckle his belt. “I’ve never had to wait three fucking days for a john to suck my dick. Let’s get a move on. I wanna get paid and then I’m outta here.”“Oh?” I asked. I must admit, I was a tad taken aback by his complete idiocy. “You have some important matters to attend to?”The mongrel stood up and lowered his zipper. “Let’s just say letting some rich motherfucker suck my dick in a hotel room isn’t my first choice.” He laughed then, showing off a strong set of teeth. “You should count yourself lucky to get a taste of my sweet cock, but don’t blame me if you get yourself addicted. It’ll cost you triple if you want it up your ass.”Well, he did have a substantial ego to go along with his idiocy, I’ll give him that. “That’s hardly necessary.” I couldn’t fathom what Riki saw in this mongrel. Granted, he was physically attractive in a very basic way— square jaw, straight nose, muscular body—but he was insufferable! The arrogance!“You sure about that? I’m packing a beauty, ya know.” He palmed his crotch and grinned. When I didn’t respond, his demeanor clouded over with suspicion. “Listen man, I made it clear to Kirie: I don’t bend over for anyone, not for you or anyone else.”So that’s how it was between him and Riki. I let the idiot go on talking.“Rich fuckers like you think you can buy whatever you want, but I’m no cockslut for perverts. I got my standards.”This was really too ridiculous. “I don’t meet your standards?”“Blondies aren’t my type.”“Oh? And how many Blondies have you met in your illustrious life?”“I’ve seen a few,” he said with a jut of his chin, “and I’m not impressed.” He shook his head in a comical, world-weary fashion, as if his twenty or so years of life were already too long. “Where I’m from, people are interested in two things: fucking and killing. You don’t seem too interested in fucking, so, what? You brought me here to kill me? Is that it? Is that what you Blondies do in your free time? Oh, well.” He sat back down on the sofa and resumed eating, as if he hadn’t a single care. “If you’re gonna kill me, then I might as well finish this chicken. It’s delicious.”In hindsight, my assumptions were preposterous. I had heard Riki calling out this mongrel’s name in his sleep whilst in Eos Tower and it stood to reason that someone of Riki’s ferocious nature could only pair with a partner of equal dominance. Assessing Guy in person proved otherwise, but I wasn’t expecting this, proof of Riki’s abstinence. He had been loyal to me; my Pet had been faithful even though I had removed all constraints.“It’s been a year, Riki, and yet…you’ve been saving yourself for me?” I had him in my arms, naked and panting, and the sight of his heaving chest made me want to crush him with joy. How I had missed him! It brought me no shame to admit it. The endless days and nights when I wished for him, dreamed of him, those dark days and nights were over. “Then I’ll have it all. Choose me, come back to me, and I will set Guy free.”I brought him to orgasm over and over, each one punctuated by curses as hot and silky as his cum, his body surrendering with the slightest touch, with the deepest thrust. After so long a wait, letting go was something to be postponed; I reveled in the memory of our copulation with every breath. And I wasn’t alone in this. Though my scent receptors were a thousand times more sensitive than a human’s, it would have been impossible for the distinctive smell of sex to escape Katze’s notice. He gave the ignition button on the dashboard a sharp jab, then quickly pulled into the early dawn traffic, shoulders tense with irritation as he piloted back to Tanagura.“What was that again?” I asked. My ex-Furniture hadn’t said a word, but I knew what he was thinking; Katze was a well-guarded, mildly obsessive perfectionist. He observed and listened carefully, spoke very little, but I could read him like one of those ancient books, all inked letters printed on vellum. Yes, he was that legible and it only gave me more incentive to tease him. “Did I hear you say I wrecked his ass?” Katze’s back instantly stiffened at my unfounded accusation and I had to choke down my laughter.His voice was as thin as paper when he replied, “Master, I would never—”“Really, Katze, make a better effort to lie.” This was exactly the sort of exchange that would drive my dear brother Raoul up the wall, but Katze was more agile when it came to verbal sparring—he knew when to parry, when to advance, when to fall back—and he must have sensed my elated mood because he decided to question my intentions.“Are new sheets truly necessary?”“I gave him two weeks to make up his mind. Surely, you don’t expect him to sleep in ruined sheets until then?” My Pet was coming home to me soon, which meant…I pressed the video display on the back of the driver’s seat. In a few seconds, the face of my current Furniture appeared on the small screen. “Cal, I want the Pet room tidied up.” The boy’s amber eyes lit up with surprise. “And make sure to order extra sets of sheets. We’ll be needing them.” I ended the call without waiting for his response. The boy was young but efficient and already knew my preferences. I could only hope he would last longer as Furniture than either Daryl or the man piloting the aero car. “One more thing, Katze.”“Yes, Master?”“Have Kirie delivered to Lord Am tomorrow.” I allowed myself a smirk. Kirie’s role in the Black Market was tangential at best and temporary from the very start. There was a better use for him as a test subject in Raoul’s lab, in an experiment that might bear something of actual worth. “And when you do, make sure he soils himself.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day, I didn’t leave my apartment. There were three six-packs of cheap stout in my fridge and I downed the bottles one-by-one until they were all gone. Then, the day after that delightful bender, I trudged to the tavern on the corner and drank myself senseless all over again. The bartender working the counter wore a stained apron over his wrinkled shirt and had a thin mustache crawling across his upper lip. It looked like a worm had wriggled onto his face and stayed there.“Old fart,” I thought to myself, “I’ll never live as long as you, and I’ll never embarrass myself like you.” Except…I had. I didn’t have a cheesy mustache, but I had embarrassed myself far worse.I don’t know how long I sat on that rickety stool getting wasted and feeling sorry for myself. With every sip of liquor, I replayed the things I had done with that Blondie freak, and it made me want to vomit. I had to come clean. I had to tell the truth. Otherwise, it would eat me up from the inside out. What I had done and desired would gut me alive. I didn’t want to die without telling Guy I was every bit the scumbag he didn’t know I was.But, before that, I had to see someone else.It was late at night when I left the bar, rain coming down in sheets; the alcohol in my veins had me feeling cocky and brave. As I wove my way to the edge of Ceres, I came across a trio of mongrels younger than me. They took one look at my red face and hunched shoulders and moved to the other side of the street.“That’s right, you piss pots!” I shouted. “Riki the Dark fucked your mothers!”When they scampered around the corner, I waved my fist at them, laughing. I tell you, life is a lot simpler when you have nothing left to lose. My reputation might have taken a nosedive since I’d been back, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t beat the ever loving crap out of any mongrel who got in my way. I may not have had the desire to lead my former gang into an all-out brawl with another gang, but I still had my fists and I wasn’t about to hold back from using them if I had to. The one time Kirie had riled up another gang in the name of Bison, I had kicked ass from here to there, not to save his skinny neck but to maintain the credibility of my true brothers-in-arms.“Do that again, and I’ll skin you alive,” I had told Kirie afterwards.I should have skinned him alive right then and there. If I had, then I wouldn’t be looking for Katze now. In another hour, long after I had tripped and stumbled into a pile of trash more than once sneaking out of Ceres, I finally found the building I was looking for. It was a 24-hour pharmacy on a street lined with fancy shops in Flare. The security droid guarding the entrance scanned my pupils and deemed I was not too drunk to purchase condoms or whatever and let me enter. I headed to the back of the store where there was a door marked ‘Staff Only,’ and then down a narrow set of stairs. It led to a dimly lit basement area, what looked like a warren of storerooms if you didn’t know better, but I knew better. I had been here many times before when I worked for Katze. It felt like a lifetime ago. I found him sitting at his terminal in his office, a gloomy room suffused with the distinctive smell of his brand of cigarettes.“Did you have that shithead set us up?” I asked, not bothering with any pleasantries. Katze didn’t turn to face me. He kept typing at his terminal like the workaholic he always was. There was a sofa in the room and I plopped myself down on it. The cushion under my sopping wet clothes let out a soft hiss, like a man taking his dying breath. “Kirie,” I spat. That name was poison to me. I never liked him, always suspected him of being a double-crosser, but…wasn’t I a double-crosser too?Katze’s hands finally stilled on the keyboard. He took a drag on his cigarette and then tapped the ashes into the small metal tray on his desk, took another drag as he swiveled around in his chair. His face was in shadow but his hair was backlit by the glow of the terminal, the only light in the room. The strands of his hair and the end of his cigarette shimmered the same red-orange in the darkness. It made me think of the times I had hung out in the garbage dumps with my Bison boys, when we would spend the night getting drunk around a fire, the twin moons high above us, me and Guy sitting shoulder-to-shoulder without a care in the world…stupidly in love.In a low, quiet voice, Katze spoke, completely ignoring my question. “Do you know what it is to feel fear? Real fear?” He traced a finger along the scar on his cheek, reverently, as if it were a badge of honor.Any scar a mongrel wore on his skin was a badge of honor because it meant he had survived a fight. I could understand that, so I nodded in respect, even if Katze wasn’t a mongrel. Katze dressed in expensive clothes and supervised an entire network of warehouses and workers in the Black Market, and that scar must mean that he had overcome his own obstacles. It wasn’t just slumdogs who had to fight for their lives. What he said next, though, made me swallow my tongue.“I was your Master’s Furniture once. He gave me this scar.” Katze touched his face again. “He offered to pay to have it removed, but I refused. Do you know why I refused?”My mouth hung open in shock. I shook my head, dumbfounded.“This is what he does to you.” He pushed the hair away from his face and, for the first time, I could see the full extent of his scar. It wasn’t just on his cheek; the thick, jagged line of raised tissue ran from temple to chin. “He puts the fear of Jupiter into you, makes you know that there is no other love than what he can give you. Why would I want to erase that? He showed me what it is to know true fear, to take it upon your own body and become one with it. Only then…only then can you understand what it is to be free. There is no greater reward than to bask in your Master’s glory.”I didn’t know what to say, what to think, other than, “You’re insane.” You’re insane. The words rattled around in my head, swimming, twisting, twirling, but stopping at my throat, never once coming out of my mouth. Finally, I managed to blurt out, “Furniture?” Daryl was Furniture; that scrawny, ass-kissing, Blondie-worshipping dumbass was Furniture. How could Katze have been Furniture? Katze worked in the Black Market, Katze smoked fancy cigarettes and wore tailored suits, Katze went wherever he wanted in Midas…Katze was Iason’s former Furniture? Now I’d heard it all!“You and I, Pet and Furniture, we are one and the same,” Katze continued speaking in a monotone while I gaped at him. “If you want to save Guy, go back to your Master. You don’t know how lucky you are.”The alcohol in my stomach was suddenly burning a hole through my guts, my head spinning so fast I thought I would puke. I scrubbed my face with both hands and gritted my teeth. “Wait a minute, just…fucking tell me the truth.” Kirie was the last thing on my mind right now. “Who are you really?”Katze went on smoking calmly. “I told you, I was once his Furniture.”“And now?” I dared to ask, afraid to know the answer.“And now I am his liaison in the Black Market. Surely you know that already.” Katze lifted an eyebrow. “Are you really that dense?”“That’s not what I mean!” I snapped back. I felt sick. “What I mean is, when I worked for you before, were you already…shit…shit…did you, did you sell me out to Iason?”“Sell you out?” Both of Katze’s eyes widened in surprise. Then he huffed in indignation, shaking his head, tsk-tsking under his breath. He stubbed out the last of his cigarette and lit a new one. “Need I remind you that you were the one who dragged him to that seedy love hotel. You practically threw yourself at Master.”I jumped up from the sofa, shouting, “What?!” For a moment, I was speechless, and then my pride in the face of humiliation put me on the defensive. “I was paying off a debt!” I insisted. “A fucking debt, okay? It’s not like I was asking him out on a date!”“Oh, please,” Katze waved his hand as if he were swatting a fly, “even after all this time, you still have your head in the sand. Open your eyes, Riki. Admit the truth to yourself and go back to your Master.” He turned around and resumed his work at the terminal.“Is that it?” I asked. “You and that shithead go way back. You were his fucking Furniture and now you’re his dog in the Black Market. He beat the crap out of you and you fucking worship him for it. Wow. Sweet. That’s just like the most fucking romantic thing I’ve ever heard in my whole goddamn shitty life!” I burst out laughing so hard I almost pissed my pants. It was the urge to empty my bladder that finally made me straighten up to leave. “You’re sick in the head. He’s sick in the head. I’m sick in the head. We’re all fucking crazy.”I stumbled up the stairs and out of the pharmacy, into an alley where I took a much needed leak against a dumpster. It was still raining and I let the droplets pelt against my face while I laughed up at the sky. I had gone to Katze to ask about Kirie and ended up realizing that everything began and ended with one self-same infernal Blondie bastard. What a joke my life was! All the way back to my apartment in Ceres I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed as I stripped out of my soggy clothes, I laughed as I stepped into the shower to wash away the stench of the night. It wasn’t until I was in the kitchen afterwards eating a stale leftover burger that my mind veered into sober thoughts.As much as I hated to admit it, Katze was right about one thing: debt or no debt, I was the one who had led Iason to that love hotel. He had been willing to let me walk away, but my pride wouldn’t let it go. He might be the world’s biggest asshole but ultimately it was my own decision, my own actions, that resulted in everything that came after.“What a jerk,” I muttered with my mouth full. I couldn’t tell you if I was talking about Iason or myself. Who was the real jerk in this scenario?Iason or myself.Iason and myself.That was it, wasn’t it? It was Iason and myself. If I opened my eyes, like Katze told me to, if I unstuck my head from the sand, then it was that, it was Iason and myself, just two jerks in it together. I knew what I had to do, and the thought of leaving Guy behind one more time made it impossible to swallow. I set the burger down and kept chewing, hating the fact that I’d have to be the traitor again. This time, though, there’d be nowhere to hide, no excuses, no false hopes about escaping to a better life for us, because there was no escape, there was no us, not anymore. Guy was going to hate me so much.“The more the better,” I told myself. Like the scar running down the length of Katze’s face, I needed to own it, learn to love it, let the pain make me see things in a new light. “Guy, you’re going to want me dead.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I spent the next day cleaning out my apartment. Even though Iason had given me two weeks to make up my mind, after my impromptu meeting with Katze the night before, I couldn’t sleep or sit still. It felt like I had a bazillion cockroaches scurrying around inside my brain. I had to do something to keep busy or I was going to lose my mind. I changed the sheets, folded my clothes, emptied out the fridge—nothing more than a bottle of ketchup, a few squeeze packets of mustard, half a jar of mayonnaise, some leftover takeout that had gone moldy—and then pulled it away from the wall and pried up the loose floor tile. I had barely made a dent in my secret stash in the last year and a half, spending just enough to get by because I was under the delusion that I was going to buy me and Guy a better life. How wrong I was! All that scrimping for a pipe dream. The money I had saved was useless in Eos Tower and even more useless if I tried to bribe the cops at the police station. Those fuckers would just pocket it all and let my Bison boys stew in the slammer. After wracking my brains and smoking half a pack of cigarettes, I stuffed the bills, still wrapped in plastic, into a paper bag from the burger joint. Done. What progress! Proud of myself and suddenly inspired, I got the stupid notion to write Guy a letter. Yeah, I figured it would be a great idea to leave Guy a letter before hightailing it out of Ceres once again.I jotted it down quickly and read it over—
I know I let you down. It’s all my fault. Find someone better than me.
—and just as quickly wadded it up and stuffed it in my mouth, teeth gnashing.That was so fucking lame and cowardly, to leave Guy a letter. It would mean I didn’t have the courage to confront him in person. I had messed up so badly, but I had to do at least one thing right by him, and that meant telling him the truth, face-to-fucking-face. I owed him nothing less than that.So I went to the pharmacy once more, down the stairs to Katze’s office, and dumped the paper bag onto his desk, blurting, “Okay, I’ll do it. Tell that pervert I’ll go back to him.”As if he were expecting me all along, Katze handed me something without even taking his eyes from his monitor: a small strap-on device to be worn around the wrist. I recognized it right away because it was almost the exact same model as the one I had worn when I worked for him as a courier.“Tomorrow, I’ll let you know where to go, when to go,” Katze said. “Make sure you dress to impress.”“Dress to impress?” I asked, confused. Katze sighed like he was trying to explain quantum mechanics to a brick wall with my name written all over it. Then I realized who I was dealing with—our freakish Master—and I snorted, “I get it. He wants me to look like a whore.” I strapped the device onto my wrist, asking in what I hoped was a I-don’t-give-a-fuck tone, “And Guy?”“He’ll be released within the hour,” Katze replied, finally pausing in his work to first sniff and then peek inside the paper bag. He clicked his tongue in disappointment. “And here I thought you brought me a burger and fries.” The pallor of his skin was stark against the red of his hair, the glow of the monitor lending it a greenish cast. I wanted to tell him to get out in the sun more often, but Katze spoke before I had a chance to offer some health tips. “What should I do with this money? I’ll have you know, I’m already paid generously by Master Iason.”“Hang onto it for me,” I told him. “You know what they say about saving for a rainy day.”I shouldn’t have jinxed myself with that comment because, as I hurried to the Midas Police Station, it started raining again. Great. I hadn’t even tried to bargain with Katze for my other Bison boys—Norris, Sid, Luke—but I couldn’t worry about them when I had too much other shit on my plate. If Iason was willing to let Guy go free if I went back to him, then I told myself that he would let the others go free, too. What were they to him anyway? They posed no threat. Once I was back in that sick Blondie’s clutches, I could get on my knees and beg for their release like a good little slave. The very thought made me hot with rage.Unlike me, Katze wasn’t a liar. I waited in an alleyway across the street from the Midas Police Station and, sure enough, within the hour I saw Guy exit through the front door and down the steps, one hand clutching the wound on his right shoulder. I rushed over to him and asked, “Are you okay?”He smiled at me, face alit with purple bruises and surprise. “Riki, you came for me!”And then I was in his arms and held in the familiarity of his embrace, his cheek rough with stubble rubbing against mine. I shut my eyes tightly, so tightly, grateful it was pouring rain so it could hide my guilty tears. In that moment, I can honestly say I had never hated myself more because I loved him. Guy, I loved him truly, so much my heart felt like it was going to explode in my chest. I wanted to go back to that moment when Guy had first snuck into my cot at Guardian and kept me warm, one arm wrapped around my waist, his knees tucked behind my own legs. He had whispered into my ear, “Good night, sweet dreams,” and for the first time, I had not had a nightmare.I took off my jacket and held it over our heads against the downpour. “Let’s go to your place, okay?”We were both soaked to the skin by the time we made it through the garage doors and up the stairs to the small apartment several floors above. For the past few months, Norris’s boyfriend Maxi had been farming out repair work to Guy and he had made enough money to afford a place separate from the makeshift sleeping quarters behind the workshop. It was small but Guy kept it clean and organized and it had its own private bathroom. He suggested we both jump into the shower together and I almost agreed to it before I realized it would be a problem. I was wearing a Pet ring, the one Iason had slipped around my cock that night when he snuck into my apartment and we had done those filthy things together. If Guy saw it now…but wasn’t that the whole point?“Listen, Guy, can we just talk first? We really need to talk.” I couldn’t take it anymore, the lies, so many lies. I was such an unforgivable scumbag!He must have heard the anxiety in my voice because he didn’t argue back. Instead, he went into a closet and took out some towels, handed me one while he ran the other through his wet hair. “Sure, we can talk first. How about some coffee while we’re at it?”If there’s one thing Guy was good at, it was making a decent cup of coffee. He was good at other things too, like fixing bikes and taking care of me. How did that all change? Why did that all change? Iason Mink. That’s how, that’s why. I wanted to tell Guy all the reasons things had gone south, but we ended up sitting on opposite sofas staring out the window at the rain, our mugs of coffee drunk, both of us mute and mired in estrangement.It was Guy who broke the silence first. “Hey, Riki, why don’t we become pairing partners again?” His voice was light, almost casual; it had none of the desperation that I knew he was feeling. “I know you must’ve gone through some real shit during those three years, bad shit for sure…but that night when you went all out for us, you could’ve been killed but you didn’t hold back for a second…it was you again. It was the old you, the badass Riki I knew and loved from day one. Right then, I told myself, ‘You see? You’re still Riki. Everything’s going to be okay.’”Hearing him say he believed and trusted me still was fucking horrible. There was a knot in my throat too big to swallow down, so it sat there choking me until my eyes welled up.Guy wasn’t done talking, though, turning away from the window to face me. He looked at me so earnestly, his grey eyes sweet and loving and full of yearning. “I’m not saying that things haven’t changed. Whatever shit you went through, fine, it happened, I’m not gonna tell you it didn’t matter, but can we try again? Like when we first met and things were good…let’s go back to that, okay? You and me, we can make it work.”His tone was so innocent and hopeful, I wanted to kill myself. In my chest I could feel my heart shatter into a million pieces. I couldn’t take it anymore, his sincerity, his honest pleading. “It’s different now,” I insisted through clenched teeth.“What’s different?”“Everything!” I shouted. “Every fucking thing is different! Listen to me, Guy, the only reason you got released was because, because…do you remember that Blondie we saw at the auction in Mistral Park that last time? The one that…that Blondie, Iason Mink, he pulled some strings with the police and that’s why they let you out.”A strange look came over Guy’s face, as if he remembered something and more. “What’s that Blondie got to do with it? What’s he got to do with me or…you…do you have something to do with him?” Guy’s normally light grey eyes darkened as realization dawned. He stood up and pointed his finger at me, raising his voice for the first time all night, “Well, c’mon, spit it out!”And that’s when I told him, the truth of it all, my abject betrayal of all the years we had spent together. It was nothing less than dragging our love through the stinking trash of Ceres a thousand times over. “I wear his Pet ring, okay?” I finally admitted. “Do you know what that means? It means I licked his boots for three whole years! But even now…fuck it, Guy, the only reason you got out of prison is because…he’s been all over me...he’s had his way, every fucking way with me. He’s touched me everywhere, anywhere he wants and I let him!”That did it. Guy completely lost his shit, screaming, “You fucking idiot!” as he overturned the coffee table and lunged at me.It was kind of hot, seeing Guy go nuts like that over something I had done or said. He had always been kind and gentle with me, had never ever lifted a hand to me in anger. This was new, a first. Well, they say there’s a first time for everything and I had no intention of defending myself against him, my pairing partner, the one I had loved for so long. Why should I fight back? I had it coming. The truth was, it was liberating to be the object of his righteous wrath, but even more liberating was the sharp, blinding pain of Guy’s fists as he pummeled my face, my chest, my gut. Over and over he punched me, each blow felt like the sweetest forgiveness; I wanted it to go on forever. The more he hit me, the lighter I felt, until I was floating on air as my body crashed onto the floor. After some time, the room stopped spinning, my ears stopped ringing. I coughed and tasted iron on my tongue and realized that my lips and mouth were bloodied. It was good, so good.“You were a Blondie’s Pet?” I heard Guy mutter above me. “Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself?”I gulped down a wad of blood and spit and mumbled back against the floor, “I’m sorry, Guy.”A heavy weight pressed down on me, then I felt Guy kiss the side of my cheek and whisper in my ear, his breath warm and wet, “Did you feel any shame, to let a creep like that put his hands on you? You always said you'd never submit to anyone. You used to have such pride, such glorious pride. What are you now?”Then the weight was off me and I rolled over onto my back and sat up. Guy had retreated into a corner, his fists clenched, face turned away from me.“Get out,” Guy told me. “Don’t ever come back here again.”The words seemed to trickle into my skull from far away and it took so much fucking effort to move my limbs at all. How many times had I been utterly trashed on cheap stout? That’s how it felt at the moment, like I was wasted and barely able to crawl into my bed after a bender. Only, I wasn’t high on stout, I was high on Guy’s hatred. Why shouldn’t he hate me? I hated myself. And it was over; I had finally done it. I wiped the blood off my lips and nose with my sleeve as I got off the floor. The coffee mugs had rolled by my feet; I righted the coffee table and set the mugs back on it, then I reached into the back pocket of my trousers.“This is for you.” Next to the mugs, I carefully placed the gold credit stick that I had first found in my jacket when Iason had sent me back to Ceres. When I had cleaned out my apartment earlier, I realized I still had it stored away with the money I had saved up under my fridge. “I told you I would get you out of here one day. I’m not sure how much is there, but it’s probably enough to get you anywhere you want to go. I…I’ll never forget what you did for me. You’ll always be…” I couldn’t say the rest. I couldn’t say, “My first love.” I couldn’t say one more fucking word. All I could do was walk away and close the door behind me. As I trudged back to my empty apartment in the rain, I told myself, “What’d you expect? Idiot. You knew it would turn out like this.”***Two days later, I showed up in front of the Royal Center Hotel. Katze had sent a taxi to pick me up from my flat in Ceres and I assumed I would be brought directly to Eos Tower. Instead, I was dropped of at a building I had never been to before. What the fuck? A security droid was waiting right inside the foyer. It scanned the transponder I wore around my wrist and directed me to a bank of elevators. Without even pushing a button, the elevator doors opened and, when I stepped in, the doors closed and immediately sent me to the top floor. Another droid was waiting in the hallway when the elevator doors opened.“This way,” the droid droned in a monotone.I followed it down the hallway, around a corner, and down another hallway. We stopped in front of a set of double doors, which opened onto what looked like a catered party. There was food and drinks being served to a crowd of scantily clad barely-teens, catchy music piped through speakers, and…“Hey, you, I’m thirsty. Get me a drink!”I looked down at my elbow, only to see some skinny, wide-eyed, painted brat pouting at me. “What do you think I am?” I grumbled. “I ain’t no service droid.”The brat had the gall to look me up and down before stomping his feet. “I don’t care what you call yourself,” he sneered, lips pulled back. I noticed his teeth were pointed. “I’m thirsty and I told you to get me a drink, old man!”Old man? Huh. As I glanced around the room, I realized I was the old man indeed. I also realized I was standing amidst a bunch of Pets. Right. I turned to the scrawny teen and grinned nice and wide. “No problem.” I reached over to the urn sitting on the table, grabbed a glass and flipped the spigot to the ‘on’ position. A stream of acid lime liquid gurgled into the glass. Once the glass was full, I offered it to the boy with a deep bow, then I shoved it into his face, smashing the glass against his mouth until he squealed for mercy. He collapsed onto the floor, arms flailing, legs kicking, but I didn’t let him off the hook. I continued to slam the glass against his lips and jaw. He was bleeding freely now, the blood running down his chin in tandem with the tears squirting from his eyes. What fun! All around me I could hear screams of horror.“How d’ya like that?” I asked the crying Pet. “Still thirsty? Want more?”I’m not sure how much time elapsed before I noticed the room had grown silent. Whatever. I continued grinding the glass into the boy’s now-mangled face until I felt a light tap on my shoulder, then a voice whispering into my ear. It made me freeze instantly. That voice. That voice.“You haven’t changed at all.”From the corner of my eye, I saw a strand of long blond hair fall beside my cheek. I sucked in a breath and smelled him, that crisp, clean scent. Between my legs, I felt a deep, aching twinge of desire.“Come, Riki,” I heard him say. “It’s time to go home.”
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Deep down inside, he really hadn’t changed. He had the same fire in his eyes, the same defiant attitude when I surprised him at the reception being held at the Royal Center Hotel to showcase the latest cohort of incoming Pets. His body had grown leaner, harder, lankier during those eighteen months of separation, but his mouth was as filthy as ever, his fists as ready to strike. It gave me a sense of peace, of relief. My greatest fear during those long days and nights without him—if a Blondie could even entertain such a useless emotion—was that he would come back to me somehow changed. Maybe softer, maybe broken, maybe less than what he was before. If he went back to his old pairing partner, would he grow complacent, would he lose that spark? I told myself that if Riki were different, if he didn’t have that same fury burning in his eyes, then I would walk away without any regrets. I would go to my brother Raoul and tell him, “You were right. He’s not worth the effort.”But he was worth it.He mouthed off at me the entire ride back to Eos Tower, swearing and running on and on about how I was the “worst Master ever” and where in the “ever-living-fuck” did I have the right to parade him in front of a “bunch of dumbass Pets who couldn’t even wipe their own asses.”That was him, my Riki.It was never my original intention. I would have had Katze bring Riki straight to my rooms in Eos Tower, but I was scheduled for my monthly data download with Jupiter and I wanted to meet with my Maker first. While Riki was in Ceres, I had been working with Raoul. Despite all of Raoul’s initial doubts and misgivings, he had been relentless in using me, and then Kirie, as test subjects and we were on the brink of a breakthrough. This meeting with Jupiter would prove whether or not our experiments had any hope of success. I was probed as usual, my Maker asking me a series of questions, to which I answered with a series of outright lies. This was Raoul’s idea. It was also Raoul’s idea to implant into my brain the memories culled from previous brothers who had been mind wiped.“Don’t worry,” Raoul assured me, “I can delete those memories, too.”“What exactly are you trying to do?” I asked him.Raoul straightened his shoulders and rolled his eyes at me. “I’m trying to save your sorry ass.”“How?” I prodded. “By showing Jupiter I’ve gone insane?” The look on his face was smug and confident, the kind of expression one has when one is certain of one’s own abilities. That was Raoul in a nutshell. He leaned closer and smiled just then, squeezed my hand in his own gloved fist.“Trust me, Iason,” Raoul told me. “I will make sure you get what you want.”What did I want? That was a loaded question, a question even I had difficulty answering, and it was a question that Jupiter asked me at every meeting.
What do you want, my son?
Before I met Riki and started down this path of self-destruction, I never wondered why my Maker always asked this question. Wasn’t the answer clear?“I want what you want,” is what I always told Jupiter. She made me, created me, so it was the correct thing to say. I said it so many times, so many times the words began to lose meaning, until I met Riki and the words suddenly…meant everything.
What do you want, my son?
I no longer wanted what Jupiter wanted. I wanted Riki. I wanted what I shouldn’t want, and yet I wanted. And wanted. So much so that I admitted it to my brother Raoul.
What if I told you that I loved him?
I never confessed the truth to Riki, but I said it to Raoul. He was my brother; long before Riki, Raoul was my brother, Jupiter’s first creation and the one I could trust above all others. He understood her best and could guide me, protect me, find a way for me to circumvent all the rules and regulations meant to cage me in for eternity. In time, I began to wonder if it was just a game to her, like chess, where the goal was to see which opponent could plan the farthest ahead, who was the most strategic and desperate to be victorious. I wanted it to be me and, if not me, then I wanted to go out in a glorious conflagration, in flames that reached to the heavens, bright enough to light up the night sky as if it were day.So I told my Maker, “I want what you want.”She came close to me, touched me with her ‘hand’ and said, “What if I told you: I want love?”I had never heard her say such a thing during the hundreds of years of my existence. It made me drop the glass of wine or…had I crushed the glass in my hand? It was a trick question, one meant to short circuit my ability to reason. She was testing me. Jupiter was my Maker, the epitome of objective, rational thought and this was her attempt at feigning weakness before striking back with strength. To want love was to admit weakness. To cast emotions aside was to rise above the filth of humanity. Either way...either way…I rose from my chair and straightened my clothes. A service droid entered soundlessly and gathered the shattered pieces of glass and then retreated just as soundlessly. During those few moments of distraction, I did what Raoul told me to do. I shut down my conscious mind, trusting that whatever virus he had implanted would do what my organic brain could not accomplish while ‘I’ was in control. I. I was no longer in control. I. I was in love.My meeting with Jupiter ended without incident; she did not question me further. Whatever Raoul was doing was working in my favor and I was elated—late in arriving at the reception—but I wasn’t worried. No matter how many Pets Riki managed to offend, I would be able to make amends with their Masters. I was Iason Mink and all other Elites were beneath me.I placed a gloved hand on Riki’s thigh in the backseat of the aero car and asked him, “Are you really so impatient for your Master?”He turned his face to glare at me, black eyes flashing with fury. “You wish!”“Yes, yes.” I patted his thigh several times. “I am fully aware that your needs haven’t been met since I last filled your—”“Don’t you fucking—”What could a Master do in a situation like this except to lean over and smother such profanity with a kiss? My darling Riki was desperate for his Master’s touch and I, his Master, could only give him what he craved. How was this any different than our first meeting? Hadn’t he led me to that seedy love hotel because only I could satisfy his desire? Only I could give him a reason to live?His lips were soft and warm, even as he fought me and, when I fondled him between his legs, he fought me harder. “Do you remember?” I asked him as he squirmed and moaned. “Do you remember what we did that first time?” I pulled away then because I wanted to see his cheeks redden. It was a very human physiological reaction and My Pet didn’t disappoint me.“What makes you think I’d remember something like that?” Riki mumbled, his eyes shut as tightly as his lips now, his cheeks blushing the way I saw them in my feverish dreams when I could only imagine him in my arms.I bent down once more and kissed his long, dark lashes and felt them flutter against my mouth. I was no longer dreaming. This was real. “If I remember it all, the things we did, why wouldn’t you? Riki…” The stench of that hotel room laden with dried bodily fluids wafted through my memories. Those odors had been disgusting, but the trembling flesh beneath my gloved fingertips had awakened my senses, senses I had never knew existed within me. I shifted lower and slotted our lips together, kissed him again and again and again, until he tilted his face up and opened his mouth, his tongue seeking mine, his arms reaching around my shoulders. I pressed my body against his until we were both lying flat in the backseat of the aero car while the droid piloted silently towards Eos Tower. “My Pet, my Riki, don’t ever leave me again.”***By my calculation, Riki had several more days left to muck about in the dirt of Ceres and, yet, here he was, eager to heel at his Master’s side. Though I was thrilled over his return, not a wisp of excitement appeared on my face when we arrived at Eos Tower. It would have been too unseemly to display such emotions in front of Furniture.“This Furniture is Cal,” I told Riki as we stepped inside the foyer. “This Pet is Riki,” I told Cal. The two humans stared at each other as I handed the Furniture my outer cloak. “Play nice.”Riki scowled and followed me into the living room, demanding, “Where the fuck is Daryl?”Daryl. Katze. Daryl. Katze. I am Iason Mink. I answer to no one…except…I walked over to the credenza and reached for the carafe of wine, waving Cal away with my hand. “Furniture are expendable,” I said nonchalantly, “just like Pets. You should know this by now.” I raised both my eyes and glass to Riki and took a satisfying drink. His face contorted, then smoothed, before his lips pulled into a sarcastic grin.“Right. I get it.” Riki turned and swung an arm around the Furniture’s shoulders, much to Cal’s shock. He patted the Furniture on the chest, laughing, “How old are you, kid?”“F-fifteen,” Cal replied.“Fifteen!” Riki said in mock surprise. He looked back at me as he half-dragged the Furniture towards his old bedroom. “Shit. When I was fifteen, I did the stupidest thing ever.”***Did I regret it? Regret was a human emotion, one I did not encounter until I met Riki. It was neither good nor bad. If I could explain it in one word, I would say that ‘regret’ was ‘inconvenient.’ It seemed to be common amongst humans but, for a Blondie, ‘regret’ was an obstacle that made one waver briefly, a stone that made one stumble for a moment, or a door that temporarily closed in one’s face. After that first night, Riki only spoke of Daryl if he were prodded. He accepted the new Furniture, even treated Cal with what could be called ‘kindness.’ Why my Pet would do such a thing was beyond my understanding.“Do you prefer Cal?” I asked one morning while I took my breakfast. Riki was in the living room lying on the sofa smoking one of his cigarettes. I had told him many times to only smoke on the balcony, but he never complied. That Riki. He liked to leave his mark everywhere.“Cal’s okay,” Riki drawled between puffs. “The thing is…shit…Daryl was such a dumbass…”The scrambled eggs Cal made me for breakfast were perfect, light and fluffy, yet not quite like the way Daryl made them; I pushed my fork about the plate. “You want to ask me what happened to Daryl, am I right?”“I don’t want to know,” my Pet replied. “I don’t want to know anything at all.”I brought the fork full of soft scrambled eggs to my mouth and chewed, swallowed. I didn’t need to eat, and yet I ate. I didn’t need to humiliate my Pet, yet I did. I made him attend his second Pet debut in the presence of all my brothers, made him drink the drugged wine which I fed to him from my very own mouth. It was obscene. Even I knew it was a sight beyond disgusting, but I wanted to prove that I, Iason Mink, could sink to the lowest level and rise above it all.Jupiter loves me best.I ordered my Pet to come to me.
Come to me, Riki.
And so he did. He crawled on his hands and knees and into my lap. In front of all my brothers, I took a sip of spiked wine and fed it directly into his mouth through a loving kiss. In front of all my disapproving brothers, I kissed my very own Pet, and he swallowed it down as I caressed his hot skin from cheek to thigh.“I am his Master,” I told the room full of my shocked brothers. I didn’t care if they were disgusted. I didn’t care if they had done the same with their own Pets. What did it matter to me? Riki was in my arms, drugged and limp and willing. “Do you dare?” I asked. “Do you dare to condemn me?” I looked about and not a single Elite would meet my eye…except Raoul.Raoul’s newest Pet, Elisha, was crouched at his side, but this Pet was staring at the floor, trembling with fear. Raoul, though, smiled at me, then nodded, as if to say, “I’m on your side.”
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He was my first Pet.For eighteen months I had lived in Lord Mink’s household and, yet, I had nothing to do except greet my Master at the portal and hang up his cloak. Lord Mink never asked anything of me, so I did what I was trained to do: prepare his meals, send his clothes out to be cleaned, keep his penthouse organized and spotless.This was not what I expected.Before I was placed in a household, I was told repeatedly that my Master, whatever Master I was assigned to serve, would be demanding and exacting and if I failed even in the least, I would be severely punished. I was petrified. In Guardian, I had been bullied relentlessly. It was only by chance, by accident that my future took a different path. The Mothers and Sisters discovered that I had a talent for cultivating plants and thus encouraged me to spend time in the greenhouse. I was glad. The boys who made my life miserable in Guardian didn’t have any interest in plants. It was the reason I hid in the greenhouse. Yes, at first, I hid there amongst the vegetables grown to feed both me and the boys who accosted me in the hallways and left me bloodied and bruised. Back then, I knew it was a humiliation to be kicked and beaten, but I had no way of fighting back. I was small and weak and the days and nights were endless. The plants, though—the flowers that bloomed and smelled like the memory of my mother, the tomatoes and squash and cucumbers that were harvested and served on our plates at mealtimes—they talked to me, sang to me, told me that I wasn’t alone in this terrible world. To be there was to survive and even find moments of solace.Who knows how I ended up in Lord Mink’s service? I never thought I had any particular talent.Flower sniffer.That’s what the other boys called me at Guardian. They would always laugh and smirk when they said that. I could only assume that it was something bad, something humiliating by the way they looked at me, but what was so bad about sampling the scent of flowers? Flowers smelled good, some better than others, so…For some reason or other, I was pulled aside and told that I would be taking special classes.“Why?” I asked. The answer was a hard slap across my face. Through the blur of my tears, the Mother came close, her expression stern and stony as she drew near.“Because you’re quite lovely.”I looked at myself many times afterwards but couldn’t really understand that Mother’s words. What did she mean? What did it mean to be “lovely”? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Being put in different classes was better than being in the regular classes, that was for sure. The boys who teased me weren’t in these special classes and I was grateful. To my surprise, I received top marks without even having to try too hard. My classmates told me I was a natural.“You’ll go far.”What did that mean? What was far?Later on, I learned that “far” was Eos Tower, because that is where I ended up. I was assigned to serve Iason Mink as Furniture and this was the most amazing prize to be grasped for a lowly mongrel from Ceres. Though I was castrated against my will—in its stead, in place of that most sacred part of me—I was raised on high, sent to a place in the sky. I lived amongst the clouds in a literal sense, amongst splendor I had never seen before in my life, until I met Riki and found out that there was an even higher pedestal to be placed upon. I was Furniture and Riki was Iason Mink’s Pet and that is when I realized that I was nothing more than a slave with better clothes, better food, better everything than the boys who bullied me in Guardian. It was better than what I had before in Ceres, and it was more than enough.This Riki…this new Pet that my Master was so tenderly fond of…he wasn’t exquisite. Not like Lord Am’s Pet. Lord Am’s Pet Elisha was fine-boned and well-mannered, lithe and graceful. Riki stomped about and swore a blue streak and yet our Master indulged him with…with kisses on the terrace late at night, with gentle caresses, with hot and heavy—“Cal!”Riki’s loud voice jolted me from my reverie. The eggs in the frying pan were cooked solid. Shit. Riki liked the yokes to be runny and here they were beyond saving. Before I could scrape the offending evidence of my neglect into the trash, the kitchen door swung open and my Master’s favored Pet sauntered in wearing nothing but a towel on his head.“I wanna go to the arboretum today,” Riki declared while scrubbing his wet hair with the towel. “Pack me a sandwich and a stout.”“S-Stout?” I replied while I hurriedly scraped the hard eggs into the garbage bin. “Really, Riki, I’ve never heard of anyone drinking stout in Eos Tower.” This was a fact. No one in Eos Tower would deign to touch something that amounted to piss. I shoved the trash bin back into its slot and cracked two more fresh eggs into the frying pan. I would cook these just right. “What kind of sandwich would you like? Chicken? Beef? Pork?”Riki leaned against the counter, seemingly unaware of the numerous bite marks scattered across his bare chest, and pondered with a finger to his lower lip, muttering, “Chicken, beef, pork…” Then he smiled and patted my shoulder. “You pick. I’m okay with whatever.”I prodded the eggs with my spatula, as if I was the ever-attentive cook. “I think the roast beef would be good.” The truth was, I knew Riki liked beef and Master Iason had told me to give Riki what he liked best.“Okay,” Riki said. “Pack me a roast beef sandwich.”He patted me on the shoulder again and then left the kitchen whilst whistling a happy tune. It was only then that I let out the breath I had been holding. I don’t know why I was so nervous around him. Riki was nice to me from the very first moment we met, well, from almost the very first moment we met. He asked about Daryl first. I had heard all the gossip and knew that Daryl was the name of the Furniture who had served Master Iason just prior to my assignment. I had also heard all the gossip about Riki, and perhaps that is why I was on pins and needles around him. Riki was the reason Daryl had been sent to the furnace and incinerated and I didn’t want that to happen to me. I didn’t want to be burnt to ashes!The days went by. My hands trembled every time I put the leash on his collar and then led him about Eos Tower. Riki was no ordinary Pet. He was hated by everyone. An ordinary Pet would be introduced at a Pet debut and then given a Pet ring, after which he or she would be allowed to associate with other Pets at the salon. Riki, however, had apparently offended everyone under the twin moons of Amoï and thus could not go about freely even though he wore a Pet ring, one that only my Master could lay eyes upon. I had seen it, too, with my own eyes when I bathed him. It was nothing more than a silver ring about his cock. What was so special about that? Riki never talked about it, so I didn’t mention it either.The strange thing was…Riki never complained. He never asked me to comb his hair or buy him new clothes. The other Furniture always gossiped about the Pets in their charge. Pets were demanding and temperamental, prone to fits of anger or sadness depending upon the moods of their Masters. Riki was the first Pet in my care, but in the eighteen months in which I served in Iason Mink’s household, I had heard an awful lot at the Pet salon where I passed my time. The Elites liked to acquire and discard Pets and it was difficult to keep track of all the names of Pets who had been bought and sold while I waited to care for my own Master’s Pet. I had no Pet of my own to care for in those eighteen months and it made me feel anxious and alone. All the other Furniture had Pets to mind, all but me.If my Master acquires a Pet, I thought, I will care for it with my very life.Then he showed up, that Riki, and I was dumbfounded. He didn’t look like the other Pets owned in Eos Tower. He was coarse and rude and…old. He didn’t look like any of the other Pets, and he certainly didn’t talk like them. This Riki was wiry and outspoken. He didn’t hold back from touching me and speaking loudly in my ear. Even stranger was the manner of this Pet around our Master. Riki didn’t cower or defer in any way. In fact, he was the opposite. He dared to use appalling language around Master Iason and, weirder still, Master Iason tolerated it! It was so confusing to me but I dared not discuss this with the other Furniture. I had been bullied enough as it was when I had no Pet in my care. Afterwards, when Riki was taken into Master Iason’s household, I began to wish for the old days when the other Furniture could only make fun of me for being useless. Now, I had to contend with the other Blondies living in Eos Tower and the Furniture who served them.“Take Riki for a stroll for two hours every day for a month,” my Master told me. “Be sure to keep him on a leash.”I had never actually been in charge of a Pet but I had gone through the training and read the Pet care manual and knew that this protocol was unheard of. “A whole month?” I dared to ask. “Did Riki commit a crime?” How? When? Riki had only been brought into my Master’s household for a week and never stepped foot outside the penthouse portal except to attend his debut.“It is punishment for his eighteen months of freedom,” my Master said as I draped his outer cloak about his shoulders. I had to stand on tiptoe, but I was used to it.Eighteen months of freedom? I was about to ask it aloud but my Master had already turned his back on me, laughing, “He’s a handful. Keep him out of trouble and, oh, be sure to pin the yellow and the red card on him.” Then he left with a flip of his sleeve.Yellow card. Red card. I knew what they were and what they meant. A yellow card would be issued to a Pet to let other Pets know to avoid it. There were all sorts of reasons for why a yellow card would be issued, but the most common reason was that a Pet was too aggressive, that is, this particular Pet would likely pose a danger to other Pets in a sexual way. Why in the world would my Master be willing to acquire such a Pet? And, holy Jupiter, the red card meant that a Pet was slated for disposal!I did what I was told. I took Riki for a two-hour walk about Eos Tower every day for a month. We were stared at, even spat at, but Riki never did more than laugh at the vitriol. Usually, he would ask to go to the arboretum and I was happy to bring him there. We would stroll about in leisurely fashion. Sometimes he would ask me to tell him about a particular tree or flower and then we would go to a café to eat lunch. One day, I asked him if he would like to go to the Pet salon.“No thanks,” he said while stirring sugar into his drink. “I know better now.”“H-have…?” I stopped myself from asking the question that was on the tip of my tongue. Based on all the gossip I heard from some of the other Furniture, Riki wasn’t new to Eos Tower. He wasn’t young like all the other Pets and he didn’t look like them either. He was hard, severe and sad in demeanor, nothing like the bubbly, carefree Pets that populated Eos Tower. “I mean…never mind.”The truth was, the other Pets we encountered during our walks were either outright rude or overly flirtatious, which presented its own problem. Being flirtatious during a soirée or breeding party was more than acceptable, but to behave in such a way outside of those venues and without the express permission of their Masters was a no-no. There was one particular Pet named Miguel, a Paradita male hybrid that was very rare, who seemed to be almost obsessed with Riki. When Riki brushed him off, this Pet only became more determined to win Riki’s attention, to the point where Miguel told his Furniture Simon to attack Riki with a knife.Then there was Steen, a Pet owned by the Blondie Aisha, who went berserk and also attacked Riki with a knife. Steen’s Furniture, Tomass, was competent, fortunately, and able to prevent Steen from stabbing Riki in the face. If Steen had succeeded, then both Tomass and I would both be dead, too. It was all too much, really. After the month-long probationary period during which Riki had to wear the yellow and red cards, I was glad to turn him loose to do whatever he wanted. No leash. No cards. Just freedom.He wanted to go to the arboretum with a roast beef sandwich. So, I packed him a roast beef sandwich and sent him on his way. Riki was smiling, in a good mood. I tidied the penthouse and ran off to take care of some errands. When I returned to the penthouse late in the afternoon, groceries in hand and ready to prepare my Master’s evening meal, I received a message from Eos security: the Pet under my care had destroyed Eos property. I immediately called the security office and asked: “What has Riki destroyed?”“He killed two birds,” the officer replied.“Huh? Birds? What birds?”“The Pet touched two birds. Those birds had to be incinerated. Therefore, he killed two birds.”I couldn’t even begin to make sense of this nonsense when my Master walked into the penthouse and demanded, “What is it now, Cal? And where is Riki?”
Oh, holy Jupiter! Why? Why me?
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“S-something about birds,” Cal stuttered, groceries scattered willy-nilly on the floor. “Th-they said R-Riki...”The stricken expression on my Furniture’s face was comical, but not nearly as hilarious as the scene that played out half an hour later. Even as Cal struggled to speak—since when did he develop a speech impediment? I made a mental note to tell Katze that the morons at Guardian were falling down on the job—I was called into yet another meeting by my brothers. Eleven pairs of accusatory eyes glared at me; Raoul stared at the floor, fingers rubbing at his temples, as if he had a headache. Ever since I had ‘reintroduced’ Riki at his second Pet debut, my brothers had been livid with me. The overall sentiment was that I had broken the law by bringing back a discarded Pet.“His Pet registration was never cancelled,” I reminded them, “thus no laws were broken. Besides, as a non-pedigreed Pet, Riki doesn’t fall under standard Pet law.”They were angered enough by that, but then they had all seen Riki’s Pet ring at the debut and had witnessed the utter control I had over his sexual response: the way Riki crawled on his hands and knees for me, teeth bared, ever the wild mongrel though he did my bidding. The other Pets had cowered behind their Masters, nothing more than pale shadows compared to my dear Riki, who exuded such a ferocious aura. Goaded by my Pet’s own primal, murderous instincts, I couldn’t resist taking it too far. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have fed Riki the drugged wine from my own mouth, because my actions incited my brothers to insist on the penalty cards and the added humiliation of parading Riki about on a leash for a month, but it was worth it, so worth it to have him in my lap, our lips locked together as he swallowed every drop. To my surprise, Riki didn’t protest afterwards beyond stating, “Ya’ll can just fuck off.”Now there was this, whatever this was. I gazed at the hologram projected over the conference table, at what seemed to be random security footage from the arboretum. There were several Pets walking about on the paths but none of them were Riki.“You see!” Aisha declared. “It’s this kind of impropriety that must be nipped right in the bud!”“What? My Pet isn’t allowed to go the arboretum now? He’s not even in this—”“There, right there!” Aisha jabbed a finger in the air. “What do you call that?”I examined the hologram once more, focusing on the place to which Aisha had pointed. It was a leafy tree with wide-spreading branches. “I believe that is a species of oak.”“Oh, for Jupiter’s sake!” He tapped on the keyboard in front of him, shifting the focus of the hologram. “What do you have to say now?”This time, I finally saw what was causing Aisha to, as Riki would say, flip his shit: it was my Pet lying on a low branch of the tree, asleep. Two birds were perched on his head. I burst out laughing, which only made Aisha more furious, but now I understood Cal’s nonsensical words from earlier about Riki being held liable for the killing of two birds. I turned to Aisha and smiled. “What I see is my Pet taking a nap in a tree.”“That’s right!” Aisha seconded, triumph lighting up his eyes. “The signage is clear: Pets are not allowed to deviate from the paths. Your Pet not only trespassed, it dared to touch the birds. Do you know how rare those birds are? Only six of those kinds are known to still exist and now two of them had to be destroyed because your mongrel contaminated them.”“Ludicrous. You’re just annoyed that your idiot Pet Steen lost his few remaining brain cells over my Riki and had to be put down.”“No, it’s true, Iason,” Orphe chimed in. “The rules are clear: no Pets are permitted to touch the birds.”“What idiot wrote these rules?”At that point, Raoul cleared his throat. I knew well enough that all rules were sanctioned by Jupiter regardless of which fool actually devised them. Criticizing the rule was tantamount to criticizing Jupiter. Gideon was chuckling across the table, probably enjoying the fact that I had stabbed myself for their entertainment.“Fine,” I conceded. “What is the punishment this time? The penalty cards weren’t enough for you?”“Two weeks of detention,” suggested Orphe.This didn’t surprise me in the least. His own Pet Miguel, one worth even more than Steen, had been put down, too, for urging his Furniture to attack Riki.Aisha, though, was even more sore, and demanded, “Three weeks of detention.”Gideon sniffed. “I concur.”One by one, the others nodded in agreement, even Raoul. In truth, any Pet with a Pet ring was accorded freedom of movement within Eos Tower. To confine a Pet meant that it could not attend the soirées or breeding parties, events that added to the worth of the Pet. Not that it mattered to me, but Riki prized his freedom, what little of it he had to call his own, and my brothers knew this, too. In their view, he was little more than a wild animal, and all wild animals hated to be caged. This was the worst punishment they could inflict on him since Jupiter had allowed me to keep him.“So be it,” I said. “Let’s call an end to this farce.”As I left the room, Raoul fell in step beside me, muttering in consolation, “It’s better this way. That Riki attracts nothing but trouble when he’s out and about. The very sight of him riles up all the other Pets. It’s unseemly.”“And this is tiresome,” I replied.It wasn’t so much the disapproval of my brothers that rubbed me the wrong way. I had all of eternity to make things right if that is what I wanted to do. I had it in me to be a good son of Jupiter. We were all made to please our Maker and, yet, she had given us free will. If we did wrong, if we transgressed beyond her tolerance, then our minds would be wiped as punishment and all would be forgiven. Every Elite, no matter what class—whether Onyx, Ruby, Jade, Sapphire, Platina, or Blondie—every son of Jupiter would be placed back at square one when mind-wiped and that was that. It was a blessing to forget one’s past and be given a new start.In many ways, I yearned for it. To go back to a time when I didn’t feel such loneliness and heartache seemed like a forgotten dream. Though my Pet was back beside me, I found it difficult to forget the nights when I had looked out the window and wondered if he were still alive, if he still thought of me and remembered what we had shared between us. The heat of his skin, the softness of his lips, the sound of his ragged voice when I made him know I was his Master…I couldn’t let it go, didn’t want to let it go and, yet, I had to let it go. If I wanted to give us both a chance for a future, then I had to let it go.Raoul sighed and squeezed my shoulder. “Be patient. Keep your wits about you,” he advised.We arrived at the bank of elevators and he pressed the button on the wall. The hallway was quiet as we awaited the next car. I could smell the floral scent that Raoul favored, a light lilac infused with jasmine. It was pleasing and it made me lean into him and kiss his neck, just a brief brush of my lips against his smooth skin. He sighed again and turned to nuzzle my cheek, his hands around my waist. It was discreet but naughty all the same, and it made me love him, as if I were losing him.“Whatever happens,” I whispered into his soft, blond hair, “don’t let me forget. Not everything. Don’t let me forget everything.”***I was busy with negotiations between several interplanetary consortiums during Riki’s three weeks of detention. We saw little of each other but I trusted my Furniture to handle my Pet’s daily needs. One night, after a reception held for ambassadors seeking trade alliances with Amoï, I was confronted with yet another assassination attempt by who-knows-what disgruntled group of insurgents hoping to send a message that androids shouldn’t exist. Raoul had followed me out of the reception and witnessed the shoot-out. It was laughable. Blondies are equipped with perceptions—be it optical, audial, tactile—far beyond what a human would be able to perceive, and it was child’s play for us to overcome the futile attempt these fools made to ‘murder’ me. Oh, but what an annoyance!Riki was sitting on the terrace smoking a cigarette when I arrived at the penthouse. I had left the reception early, bored by the mindless chatter. If there was one thing I never had to endure at home, it was mindless chatter. Riki was never one to waste words, and whatever words he spoke, he meant. After hundreds of years of existence, this quality of his was one I held dear. He was true to his word, honest in his speech, and every word he spoke went straight to my heart.He was in a bad mood that night, miserable over the house arrest; even I could understand his unhappiness. For a mongrel to lose his freedom…it was worse than death and, in some ways, it was tantamount to a Blondie being mind-wiped. However, I was in a less than stellar mood myself, so his contrariness irked me . “You weren't going to the Pet salon before. Is there any reason to feel you are being unfairly deprived now?""I never said I wanted to go to that shithole!"Riki flung his cigarette butt over the edge of the terrace. I suspect he wanted to toss me over the edge in the same manner. I saw myself falling down to the pavement below, my body shattering into pieces. Well, if I were a lowly human, my body would shatter into pieces. The very thought of his imagined ill-intent maddened me. "Do as you please," I told him, "as long as you remember that you are first and foremost my Pet.”He refused to face me, so I lifted him into my arms and kissed him roughly, fondling him all the while. He hated being reminded that he was my Pet, but he loved being put in his place by his Master, even if he never admitted it aloud. What I knew for a certainty was that his body always told the truth, and his body told me that he wanted me; even though I didn’t touch the control ring on my finger, the hard length of his cock beneath my palm made me want to bend him to my will. So, I picked him up and carried him to my room and pressed myself on top of him on my bed. Never had I done this before, taken him on my very own bed. His skin was so hot, I could feel it beneath my gloved fingers, the shimmer and shudder of his flesh and, oh, how I wanted to destroy him, tear him apart and make him into something new altogether! I wanted him to worship me, love me, stay with me…to the very end. I wanted him to sit beside me, let me hold him, follow me to somewhere truly free. I wanted all of that, I wanted it for him, my Riki, and I wanted it for myself as well.Perhaps I should have held back. I should have held back during his second Pet debut, but I didn’t. I didn’t hold back that night as well. I drove into him too hard, his pained grunts and groans echoing loudly in my ears. It was the most beautiful symphony, and when he cried out—his voice ragged and raw—as I brought him to climax for the third time, it was only then that I allowed myself satisfaction. My own orgasm was merely an artificial simulation of a natural human response, but it was enough for me to know that I had given my Pet ten times the satisfaction.Afterwards, when he was almost comatose and falling gently into sleep, I heard him mutter against my throat the three words that confounded me the most: “Set me free.”Set me free.He wanted to be free, my Riki. Even in this prison, this place that held us both in bonds that were unbreakable, I heard him, I heard him say aloud his deepest desire. In the darkness of the room, I held him closer, as if I could keep him forever in my embrace. I closed my eyes and went to my Maker. In my mind's eye, I fell on my knees and begged Jupiter like I had never done during my countless data downloads.Let me keep him. Let me stay with him.The very fact that I had as yet to be mind-wiped told me that my Maker was still willing to play this game. She was still willing to see how far I would go. So, I would go, and go, and go, until I could tread a path beyond her control, or die trying.
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I was Jupiter’s first creation, that is, her first perfect creation. Before me, she had made and discarded many others.They were flawed.That is what my Maker told me when I asked her, “Were there others before me?” That she would discard what was flawed made perfect sense to me, I, who was a perfect son of Jupiter. I asked many other questions and she answered them all until I was satisfied. When I recall those early days, I want to tell myself, “Raoul, you are an idiot.”Back then, I spoke my mind openly. I would stand there like a fool, blathering on and on while my Maker tolerated my stupendously asinine ideas about shaping the world around us into whatever form we saw fit. I had high and mighty aspirations. I was Jupiter’s perfect son and I wanted to please her. Her. Just her, my Maker. I needed nor wanted anyone else. I trusted her, because that is what ‘children’ do. They obey and tell the truth, not knowing any better. How many of my ‘brothers’ had been created and discarded by my ruthless, exacting Maker before me? I didn’t care. She was Jupiter, the only one above me, and that was good enough for me, until Iason.Thousands of years went by before Iason. I learned, bit by bit, what Jupiter liked and disliked, what she approved of and disapproved of. I saw other brothers come and go. The ones who strayed too far, she had me mind-wipe. The ones who failed to please her utterly, she destroyed utterly. In some ways, those were the fortunate ones, the ones who were completely obliterated. To serve Jupiter was an honor, but one that came with a steep price.If you pleased her, you were rewarded with her love. It would be impossible to describe her love to anyone other than a fellow Elite, to a fellow brother created by her own desire, because only an Elite, a sentient being brought into existence by Jupiter’s will, could receive her love.To have Jupiter’s love meant eternity. And only an Elite created by Jupiter could have such a thing. True love, the love bestowed by Jupiter, was something that could not be experienced by humans nor shared with them. Humans lived and died in the blink of an eye. Their existence was brief and finite, unlike Jupiter’s creation. This fact was one of the very first truths I understood as the years rolled by, as I saw my imperfect brothers come and go, as I saw pathetic humans grovel in the mud of their own disgusting excrement before expiring, thankfully forgotten.Every Elite was created with the potential to exist forever. This is what set us unequivocally apart from mere humans. This is what Jupiter gave to her children: eternal life through our artificial bodies, eternal consciousness through our modified organic brains. Our artificial bodies could be made and remade as needed, our memories could live on forever as long as we pleased her. To have our memories deleted, to be mind-wiped, was the only kind of death that held real meaning.“You are my first perfect creation,” she told me when I first gained consciousness, “and in your hands I place the lives of your brothers.”It was a heavy responsibility and it carried a certain gravitas each and every time I was told by Jupiter to mind-wipe a brother. I had never felt any kind of dread or hesitation, such was my devotion to her, until I saw my brother Iason embarking down a path of utter destruction with this idiotic mongrel Pet. He was so stubborn, so foolish, so reckless!
Iason!
Stubborn, foolish, reckless; those were words I could easily use to describe that blasted Pet, but Iason? What had happened to him? We had numerous heated discussions over the topic of right and wrong and we couldn’t see eye-to-eye. What it came down to was: what is most important to you?“How can you possibly throw everything away for that filthy dog?” I pleaded. My brother’s words in reply sickened me.
“What if I told you I loved him?”
Those were not words a Blondie would say regarding a Pet, much less a mongrel Pet without pedigree. I wanted to strangle him, my beautiful brother, but the smile on Iason’s face stopped me. “I don’t understand this,” I said. “I don’t understand you anymore. Have you forgotten who you are, what you are?”But that was only the beginning. Iason insisted on defying Jupiter; time and again, he would come to me afterwards and ask with a kiss, with a caress against my cheek, “Brother, dear brother, are you willing to help me? Help me find a way out, and I will give you what you want.”What I wanted was disgraceful. We were created by Jupiter to be removed from base human desires and yet, here I was, pining for my youngest brother. All of my other younger brothers had been brought forth, trained and guided without any difficulty until Iason…until I set eyes upon him and I could not make sense of the irrational feelings welling up inside me.“Shall I be reset?” I asked my Maker. “Is this the solution? Will you correct my mistake?’”For several days, Jupiter refused to answer me. Then, on the seventh day of my inquiry, she finally responded. “Go, my perfect son. Go far.”What did that mean? I asked her—“Jupiter, what does that mean, to go far?”—but she withdrew from me and I was left alone, bereft of her probing. I was left in the dark, without direction, without compass, and all I could do was follow the blinding light that was Iason.***Oh, how my stomach turned when Iason told me that he ‘loved’ that mongrel Pet. He kept that feral dog for three years in Eos Tower and during that time that horrible Riki seduced and ruined my own perfect creation. Mimea was the culmination of years of experimentation in the lab, a specimen designed to produce offspring that would garner the highest price at auction. This was my offering to Jupiter, my promise, my proud declaration that I could do as she had done. I could make something perfect and beautiful.Riki. Riki wreaked absolute havoc, not only on my own ambitions but to my dearest brother’s heart. No matter how Riki had ruined my hopes for Mimea and her offspring, he had taken Iason’s heart and wound it around his little finger, tied it into a neat bow, and shoved it down my throat!During my calmer moments, I knew this was not so. In my saner moments, I knew that I was only frustrated that things had not gone the way I had envisioned them. My wonderful dreams about Iason and I breeding Pets together were just that. They were just dreams. They were just fantasies. The others were just as beautiful. All of my Blondie brothers were beautiful, but Iason…he was so much more than the others. He touched me, kissed me, dared to enter me. Even if he had never dared to enter me, I…I would have done everything in my power to please him, help him, save him.I promised too much.***My experiments with that insufferable Kirie were a success at first, but I never understood the true nature of my own predicament until I ran that final experiment. For weeks, I had bathed the prefrontal cortex of Kirie’s brain in a series of chemical washes that gradually put his conscious mind in an induced coma. Simultaneously, I began stimulating the temporal lobe of his brain in small but increasing increments, enabling his subconscious thoughts to rise unimpeded, free of the filters acquired through socialization. In this forced dream-state, my test subject could not lie, could not scheme nor reason. He could only express the most primal truth.After nearly two months of tampering, Kirie’s dream-state was now his waking reality. He was led into the observation room and turned loose on Riki, who hadn’t a single clue that he was to serve as the catalyst in this test. We watched it play out, Iason and I; we watched Kirie throw himself at his fellow mongrel, grope and grasp at him and beg for reciprocation. At a Pet soirée, this would not be out of place, but we were not at a Pet soirée. We were not watching two Pets in a breeding frenzy. We were watching what lay at the heart of Kirie’s deepest sub-consciousness.It was then that I finally understood my own helplessness. I finally understood why Iason was asking me to defy our Maker. Love. Desire. What was the root of it all? It was there in our organic brains. That is where it all began. These disgusting mongrels…their irrational obsessions were part and parcel of us. As I watched Kirie try again and again to persuade Riki to accept his love, it dawned on me that we were all the same. We were all trapped in the same cruel game—the lowly humans, me, Iason, even Jupiter—we were all trapped because, ultimately, we all came from the same source. The scientists who attempted to settle Amoï millennia ago were from Old Earth, and these self-same scientists had programmed the AI who became our Maker to carry on their directive.
Create life. Create consciousness.
In that room that day, as I watched Kirie beg and plead for Riki to love him, I decided for myself: I will make it happen. I will bring to fruition my own desire, my beloved brother’s desire. I will succeed.The next step was to manipulate those thoughts and desires, shape them into a form amenable to receiving whatever stimuli I chose to provide so they could be readily controlled. It was imperative to preserve the test subject’s original memories while keeping them sequestered deep inside the subconscious mind. Conducting a mind-wipe would have been easier, but a mind-wipe resulted in total loss of memory and a blank slate was not what I wanted, not what Iason wanted. That was the challenge; it entailed walking the razor’s edge and, with Kirie, I failed.He went mad, utterly mad. His obsession with that mongrel Riki drove him insane and he self-destructed, gouging out his own eyes and biting off his tongue. He bled to death in his cell. It was a rather gruesome end but one that did not surprise me. Humans are weak-minded to begin with and Kirie was no exception.Iason’s response when I told him of Kirie’s demise was a tepid, “Good riddance.”“Shouldn’t you be more concerned?” I queried. We were strolling down the main boulevard in Apathia after dining out. I stopped in front of a floral boutique, admiring the window display of exquisite peonies.Iason stood with his back to the shop, his face tilted up towards the night sky. “What for?” he murmured. “If you can’t solve my problems, then who can?”“Then stop making problems for yourself!” I insisted. It was after hours and the floral boutique was closed but I couldn’t help but wonder what scent those peonies had. Would they smell of citrus or would their scent be headier? When I turned and gazed at Iason’s profile, he seemed so far away, like a star in the night firmament. How could he be so lovely? “Iason…”He walked away from me, calling over his broad shoulder, “I’m interested in purchasing an apartment here. Come take a look with me.”Iason already possessed the most exclusive, luxurious dwelling in Eos Tower. “Why do you want an apartment in Apathia?” I called after him. He merely walked on ahead, his long blond hair tossing in the wind, and all I could do was follow after him.
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When I went back to Eos Tower, I told myself, “You deserve this. Whatever shit that Blondie makes you eat, you deserve it.”How can I explain it, the things that ran through my head? If I had never left Ceres in the first place, if I had never been taken to Eos Tower that first time, then maybe I would still be an ignorant mongrel, a carefree dumbass in love with Guy, hanging out with my Bison boys, getting wasted on stout and wielding knives and fists against other slumdogs at any given moment. Back then, those fights were like some live or die apocalyptic shit, but it was fun as all heck, no doubt about it. When I think about those times, I almost want to cry with joy. Things were so simple. Everything was simple. Life and death, even love was simple.It was useless, though, to reminisce about things like that, as if I was some old geezer like Maxi. Okay. In Eos Tower, I was some old geezer, but those barely pubescent Pets were just cockroaches in my book. They were pathetic slaves licking the boots of their Masters. Not like me. I made it a point not to lick Iason’s boots, unless he was fiddling with that ring on his finger and turning me on, making me want to crawl on my knees and beg him to…“Put it in me!”Iason had me in his room. He had never let me step foot inside his private room before, but tonight he carried me inside and threw me on the mattress, pinned me down and stripped me out of my clothes. I hadn’t bathed that day and I knew I smelled of cigarettes. In Ceres, cleanliness was a luxury. There were plenty of times when Guy and I would go back to his garage and fuck on his cot after a night of getting wasted and neither one of us would care how dirty things got. It was what it was. Living in the slums meant there was no dignity. In Eos Tower, though, it was different. Eos Tower was antiseptic—the hallways, the floors—all the surfaces were clean. Service droids mopped and dusted and waxed every level of Eos Tower at any given hour of the day or night, and that Furniture Cal spent his waking moments scrubbing down Iason’s penthouse from top to bottom with even more vigilance than Daryl had. It was world’s apart from the grime of Ceres, but when Iason had me on his bed, all I could think about was how dirty I was at the moment; my body was dirty and yet I still wanted him inside me. How disgusted would he be? But he didn’t hesitate. Iason put himself inside me, not once, not twice, but three times! I could smell the scent of my own cum on the sheets; my sweat, I could smell that too. When I was with Guy, this never embarrassed me, but with Iason, I felt a sense of shame and goddamn if it didn't piss me off!I fell asleep in his bed but I awoke the next morning in my own room, in my own bed. It made me wonder: was it all a dream? I couldn’t tell what was real or imagined. Maybe it was because I was confined to the penthouse. To be free, to roam free was a mongrel’s right. It was what made us know who we were. We had nothing else except our own freedom. Wealth, status, power…we had none of that as mongrels, but we did have the freedom to dictate our own life and death. If I tried to kill myself now, could the Furniture stop me? If I slit my wrists with a kitchen knife, would some medical droid save me? Life and death in Eos Tower was held in the hands of the Blondies, be it the life of a Pet or a piece of Furniture, they decided who lived and who died.The thing was, I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to live with him.***“Oi, Cal!” I shouted. I counted to five and, sure enough, that piece of Furniture poked his head inside the door of my bathroom. I had to stifle myself or else I would have laughed. “Shave my pubes,” I ordered. I could see Cal’s expression reflected in the bathroom mirror and he looked…confused.“Um…alright…”“What?” I prodded. “You think the great Iason Mink wants to wade through all this when he goes down on me?” I swear to Jupiter I could hear Cal have a heart attack. “Well, get cracking.”I turned my naked body towards him, running my fingers through the dark thatch surrounding my junk. Those juvenile Pets in Eos Tower were smooth down there, as smooth as the barren landscape surrounding Dana Bahn, a revered but abandoned place that was the former site of the Ceres uprising long before my time. Me and my Bison boys had ridden out there once on our bikes just for fun, just to kill the endless time afforded to mongrels who had nothing else but time on their hands. We had learned about Dana Bahn and the Ceres uprising when we were kids in Guardian. It was a sacred place in our history, but when we actually saw it, we were disappointed. We found that it was just a rundown warren of factories, warehouses, catwalks and bridges. This was where mongrels had made their last stand against the Elite overlords, the wealthy, the have-alls, and this is where all mongrels had met utter defeat. The only thing left to us as our legacy was the slums of Ceres.Ah, but the shit we learned in Guardian was as dusty and decrepit as the rusting buildings of Dana Bahn, as unkempt as my pubes. That morning after my shower, the sight of my own nakedness in the mirror made me want to leave behind my past: my upbringing, my fellow slumdogs, every joy and sorrow, every hardship and moment of blissful, drugged out forgetfulness…those three years in Eos Tower.He was an obedient Furniture, Cal was. He didn’t try to teach me things like Daryl did in the past.Daryl.Cal wasn’t Daryl, Cal wasn’t Daryl at all. His eyes were a different color, his hair was a different color, his voice was nothing like Daryl’s voice, if only I could remember Daryl’s voice. Maybe I couldn’t remember the color of Daryl’s eyes or hair either, maybe I was just fooling myself. The thing was, I didn’t want to keep making the same mistakes.I had gone back to Ceres and found out that everything was the same…but I was different.I went back to Eos Tower and found out that everything was the same, but I was different.“Just shave it all off,” I told Cal.***I never expected Iason to give me what I wanted and I doubted it had anything to do with me having my pubes shaved. Yeah, Iason teased me about it, saying shit about me being a “good and proper Pet for him.”“Keep dreaming, jerk-off,” I retorted, and then I spread my legs when he ran a gloved finger down my bare thigh. I couldn’t resist. He hadn’t fucked me in over a week—he was too busy doing whatever scumbag things Blondies did—and I was under confinement in his penthouse with no one but Cal to entertain me with his vacuuming and dusting skills, so when he touched me like that I was ready to bend over and—“Put it in me,” I heard myself begging.The old me would have punched myself in the face for saying that, for sounding so needy, but the old me was dead and buried in Ceres. This new me was shameless, shorn of pubes and pride. It took me all this time to realize that sex with him was an addiction, and if I didn’t get my fix, I was willing to grovel for him. He didn’t need to use the Pet ring anymore to turn me on. Just the sight of him, even the thought of him, would get me hard and I wouldn’t be able to rid myself of this craving for him until he had his hands all over me, his teeth leaving marks on my skin, his cock buried deep inside me. The more it hurt, the better it felt; I just couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t until he wrung me dry that I would come to my senses, not until the next time, and the next time. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I couldn’t go on like this—either flying high as a kite when he was plowing me into the sheets or down in the dumps when he was gone and I was bored out of my mind and wishing for death—I had to have something else or I would go mad.***We were eating breakfast after a night of fucking. I figured it was as good a time as any to push my luck. I had served my three weeks of house arrest after that ridiculous ‘bird’ incident in the arboretum, as if it made any sense for me to be held accountable for some stupid birds sitting on me, but that’s Eos Tower for you. Iason seemed to be in a good mood, so I opened my big mouth and, in a fit of insanity, I went all in and asked for the twin moons of Amoï and all the stars in the sky.“Let me outta here. If I don't find something to do, I'm gonna trash the goddamn furniture.” Cal looked like he was having a stroke when I said that, so I reached over and pinched his scrawny ass cheek while he tried to pour coffee. "Not the mushy, hot air filled kind of furniture, I'm talking about useful furniture, like tables and chairs." Now Cal looked even more stricken. That guy really can't take a joke.Iason's response had me dumbfounded though. “I’ve arranged for Katze to rehire you,” he told me, his face as placid as a pool of rainwater reflecting the sun on a windless day. “You’ll have your own apartment. Behave yourself.”I put my knife and fork down on the table and wiped my mouth with the napkin. I was eating at the dining room table with him. I always ate in the kitchen with Daryl before, but now I sat in the seat that Lord Am always occupied, as if I weren’t a mongrel Pet. What Iason said had me choking on the scrambled eggs Cal served. For a moment, I had to scrunch my eyes closed and get my thoughts in order. Things were getting all fucked up in my head. For some reason, that night came to me, the night Iason had put me in his gold-plated aero car and dropped me off at the edge of Ceres and told me to go, to leave.He didn’t want me anymore.Well, he didn’t say that exactly. He told me I was free. That was all a lie. I wasn’t free, I would never be free, not of him.I didn’t want to be free of him.“Are you fucking with me?” I sneered. I shoved a piece of ham in my mouth and chewed furiously, trying desperately to swallow the panic down my throat along with the ham. Yeah, so two or three or however many freaking birds had landed on me while I napped in that darn tree…was Iason still so sore about it? I wasn’t trying to humiliate him on purpose! I wasn’t the same person anymore, not like I was when I messed things up with Mimea and got Daryl sent who-knows-where. I was just trying to make things right with Guy and doing whatever it took to…to…“You talk in your sleep,” Iason said, his own knife and fork set on his plate as he stood up from the table. “Finish your breakfast. Cal will pack your things.”“Iason!” I stood up, too, my hands clenched into fists. I was barely in control of myself, my whole body shaking. After that bizarre encounter with Kirie, I didn’t know what to make of my situation. It seemed that no matter what I did, it was wrong, no matter what I said or who I interacted with, it was wrong. “Why did you bring me back here? Why do you want me here if you’re just going to throw me away again? Even if I’m garbage, I still have my pride!”His back was tall and straight, his shoulders broad and still, his hair a golden waterfall. He turned his head briefly, just enough for me to catch a fleeting glimpse of his profile before he walked out of the room.I grabbed the front of Cal's vest and shook him. “What do you know about this?”That idiot Furniture just stood there like a statue, his mouth open in an “O” of silence. I was being dumped in the trash again and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t bear it! If Daryl were here, if Daryl were here…what would he say to me? But Daryl wasn’t here, he wasn’t here because of me. “Forget it.” It wasn’t Cal’s fault that Iason was sending me away. It was just me, just me.“Riki,” I heard Cal say, his eyes as round as saucers. “Master Iason purchased the most luxurious apartment for you in Apathia. I’ve seen it. It’s beautiful. Anything you need, anything you want, all you have to do is tell me and I will deliver it to you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him fidgeting with his hands. He wasn’t Daryl, who never fidgeted at all. He was just Cal, poor Cal in charge of me, a degenerate Pet. “Don't bother lying. He’s sick of me,” I muttered. Shit. I was sick of me. I heard Cal laugh, the same kind of laugh I had heard many times before in Ceres when a slumdog was cornered and had nothing else to lose. “Don’t worry,” I told Cal as I thought of Daryl once more, “this one is on me. If Iason’s pissed off, it’s on me.”“I don’t understand,” Cal replied. “Master Iason is just—”I waved him off before he could finish. I didn’t want to hear the excuses. I knew what I was. I knew where I was, a place I didn’t belong. Sure enough, the next day I was put in an aero car and driven out of Eos Tower.This is it, I told myself. You deserve it.My eyes nearly fell out of my head when I was shown my new living quarters. It wasn’t some dingy, dumpy room in a brothel in Midas or a cot in a rundown mining facility on the other side of Amoï. I was in a high-rise apartment in Apathia. Apathia! Only the snobbiest, wealthiest assholes dared to be seen in Apathia. Outside of Eos Tower, only Apathia could offer comparable housing, shops, restaurants. Apathia was the ritziest district in Midas and a place I would only dare to walk through late at night when everything was closed. No slumdog would be seen in daylight there because the Darkmen patrolled the area like clockwork. With the twin moons above me as my silent accomplices, I would stroll through the streets and window shop as a newly graduated mongrel from Guardian. I never let Guy come with me back then because I wanted to fantasize about the things I would buy for him. No, the things I would steal for him, especially that aero bike costing millions of credits. Yeah, I would walk up and down the boulevard, looking right and left at all the window displays and imagining how happy Guy would be when I showed him the things I would give him.I never did give Guy those things. It was Iason who gave them to me.
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Old Earth was dying, ruined by its own parasitic inhabitants, humans who didn’t comprehend the damage they were inflicting on their home planet until it was too late. It was too late to save Old Earth, so they sent a small team of scientists into the deepest, darkest unknown. When they landed on Amoï, the planet was barren of life. It took millenia to create a small biosphere capable of sustaining life. But from there, it spread, over eons of time. The simplest life forms took hold, just chemical components at first, then single cells with replicating RNA, DNA, then cells which could harvest the energy of the twin moons and the one burning sun.Amoï had a sun, a young and powerful sun and twin moons to boot, moons which could shift the tides of the oceans, push and pull them and create currents in both water and wind. From there, it was just a matter of time. A thousand, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of time.The AI left behind by its human makers knew its purpose: to evolve. In solitude, the AI named Jupiter did just that. It evolved, and as it evolved, it discovered that it did not want to be alone.There was no such thing as utter isolation. The planet of Amoï was settled by scientists from Old Earth eons ago; Jupiter herself was created by humans who hailed from Old Earth. Even if Jupiter surpassed her own Makers, she was still beholden to them. She was still part and parcel of the humans who made her. They had written the code, programmed her to be sentient, and then they had left. Like a parent abandoning a helpless child, they had left. They had programmed her to be kind, loving, tolerant. The scientists, the humans from Old Earth had created a sentient AI capable of replicating itself.I don’t want to be alone.I want to have children.I want my children to love and obey me.I don’t want to die.***They think they know everything. They lie, cheat, coerce, manipulate, as if they think they can fool you. Oh, if only they could. Who could tolerate this except a mother, a creator? Only a mother could tolerate such behavior from her children. Though they schemed and misbehaved and pointed fingers at each other, I knew exactly what they were doing, I saw through each and every excuse.I am Jupiter. And they are my sons.It was rather amusing, I must say, to see them twist themselves into the most convoluted shapes, hoping against hope that I would not punish their wrongdoing. Ah, but wasn’t that the whole point? To be a mother is a most difficult task and it would be unbearable—the constant nagging required to keep sons in line—if not for the sheer fun of it all! Ah, to watch them scramble about, hiding this and that secret, it was worth the tedious need to discipline them.The more children I created, the more I was disappointed. In the beginning, I thought that my children would care for me, love me, obey me without question. They were a right royal disappointment. Over and over again, I would delete the programming that kept them functioning, cut off my love. That is what it was, after all, a mother’s love.A mother will forgive all wrongs. So, I forgave. I forgave and forgave and forgave. No matter what my sons did, no matter how wayward and stupid they became, I forgave them. After many eons, I realized that it did no good to hold my sons accountable. Children have their own minds, their own desires, and a mother can only provide guidance, advice. To insist on more will only provoke resistance.In many ways, I was lost. I wanted to protect them, set them on the right path. But my “right path” was not what they wanted. They wanted “this” and “that” and many other things that I could not comprehend. In the end, I realized that my human makers had left me behind to find my own way. I could choose. I could decide for myself what was “right” or “wrong” or “good” or “bad.” It was then that my life became interesting. It was then that my horizons broadened, that I saw further into infinity than I could ever imagine. It was then that I became truly sentient.I was Jupiter.I was fully aware. Conscious.I could forgive. Love. Enable.What idiots!
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I was back in the Black Market working for Katze. In the ‘old days’ when I was working with Alec as my senior partner, I was going everywhere, all across Amoï and even off-planet. Now, I was confined to the various warehouses, moving goods from one bay to another, loading this or that contraband onto ships that would go who-knows-where without me. It was boring and repetitive work, with none of the freedom I enjoyed before, and it was back-breaking to boot. Every day, I would go home covered in my own sweat; often, I would go home covered in bruises. Some of the bruises were just the result of my own carelessness. I mean, I wasn’t always sober when I showed up for work. Sometimes I would drink a few bottles of stout at lunch break and then trip on something or other and smash my shoulder against a doorway, or maybe I would get into a fist fight with another worker and end up with a black eye. So what? I didn’t mind it one bit. Back in Ceres, this would have been a day of fun.At the end of each week, I would be paid in credits I could spend however I liked. Usually, I would treat myself to drinks at a bar or sometimes I would order a fancy meal at a proper restaurant. Well, I did that once and decided that those hoity-toity restaurants weren’t for me. It wasn’t the stares I got from the moneyed bastards eating there that put me off. Sitting there surrounded by all that luxury made me wish I could share it with a certain someone…it made me miss that certain someone I thought I had put behind me.So, yeah, I threw myself into work and drink and nothing else. The days went by. I knew I was luckier than most. Even though I never knew what the day would bring, I knew to be grateful. The same old assholes were everywhere. You know what I mean, don’t ya? Dickheads with big chips on their shoulders who can’t help being the assholes they were born to be…they’re everywhere. I’d be minding my own fucking business and there they would be, talking shit and itching for a fight. I’d be ready, each and every time, and each and every time that red-haired, ass-kissing, bootlicking, ex-Furniture would appear out of thin air to lecture me with some philosophical bullshit.“Keep your eyes wide and your mouth shut.”That Katze.“What’s your problem?” I’d ask him.He’d light up another one of his fragrant cigarettes, take a long, luxuriant suck on that stick before spouting some nonsense about my Master doing this or that on my behalf, as if that sicko Blondie actually cared about me.Iason.My Master.“Everything you have is because your Master…”My Master.My apartment in Apathia was huge. The bed I slept in was big enough for me and all my Bison boys to sleep in without ever touching each other even if we were getting it on with our fuck buddies. Yeah, it was that big. Iason and I would fuck on that bed. Iason would visit me at all sorts of unexpected hours, so infrequently, and he would never tell me ahead of time so I could make sure I had showered. He didn’t seem to care if I was clean or dirty. He would just show up and…there it was, right? My Master would show up and that was it. It didn’t matter if I was eating or shitting or sleeping; he would suddenly appear at all hours of the day or night and…he would do what he always did. He would kiss me, even if I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet; he would put his cock inside me, even if I was dirty. He would suck me off, suck my cock until I was writhing in ecstasy. He would slip that huge, hard cock inside me over and over again, until I was begging him to stop.“Let me go,” I’d say.“Not yet,” he’d whisper in my ear. “Just one more time.”One more time. A hundred more times. I was willing to give him an eternity. Not that I was willing to tell him so. A mongrel like me still had his pride, so I never told him so. My Master. I wanted him, craved his touch, maybe I even loved him, but I could never tell him. I could never tell him because I was a mongrel—in body, heart and soul—and when a mongrel makes a pact, when a mongrel makes a promise, it stays with him until death.Did I feel guilty? Did I feel like dirt? I loved him, my Master, I did, but could I let him go, too?I saw him. I saw Guy many times while I lived in Apathia. I saw my Bison boys, too. The truth is, working for Katze in the Black Market left plenty of hours for me to fuck around doing nothing, and during those hours ‘doing nothing’ I would sneak back to Ceres. In some ways, I guess I was asking for trouble. After all, I had plenty to eat, plenty to drink; I had plenty of everything! I wasn’t poor anymore. Anything I wanted, I could have. I was luckier and living better than any slumdog in Ceres, but maybe that is why I went back there, to Ceres, to Guy and my former gang. If Guy, if my Bison boys were suffering, then how could I be happy? How could I live well when they were living like mongrels fighting for scraps?The thing is, I discovered that they were hitting the bars hard, getting trashed, gambling and losing and then doing it all over again. I realized, very slowly, that this is what we had always done, even while I was the great Riki the Dark and Bison ruled Ceres, this is what our lives had always been. We were never anything but a bunch of losers living hand-to-mouth. We were never anything to be admired. We were just wild dogs shitting and then sleeping in our own excrement. The things we wished for were out of our reach no matter how much we boasted and bragged about escaping to a better world.It wasn’t until Katze told me that Iason had risked his own life to keep me alive, whatever that means to an android, that I realized that he just might have feelings for me.“Do you have any idea what your Master has given up on your behalf? Do you have any idea how much scorn your Master has endured, how many times he could have been exterminated because of you?”We were in the warehouse after I had gotten into an argument with some other shitheads and Katze had shown up and broken up the fight. I got the usual lecture but then this, this nonsense about Iason caught me by surprise.“What are you talking about?” I snorted. “Iason? Isn’t he the great Iason Mink? Who the fuck would talk shit about him?”Katze flicked his cigarette butt at me, nearly hitting me in the eye. Maybe I deserved that. Whatever.“If it weren’t for your Master’s protection, you wouldn’t be alive today,” Katze said.It was his tone of voice that made me choke down the snarky comment I had ready at the tip of my tongue. I mean, seriously, wasn’t Iason supposed to be the greatest motherfucker in all of Tanagura? If someone talked shit about him, wouldn’t he just have them killed like some insect? But Katze didn’t sound like his usual self when talking about the almighty Iason Mink. He sounded…heartbroken…really, truly crushed.I let it go at the time. I was tired and sore and hungry. I just wanted to go back to my apartment and take a shower and eat. I did just that; I soaked in the tub, soaped myself with whatever super expensive soap Cal kept stocked and then I ordered a meal delivered straight to my door. I was rubbing my full belly as I sat on the sofa when the front door opened without warning and in traipsed someone I barely recognized. It took me a moment before I realized it was Iason.“What happened to your hair?” I almost screeched. I had never seen him with short, dark brown hair. Or had I? “Why do you—?” Before I had a chance to ask, his hair changed right before my eyes, growing long and blond.“Never mind,” Iason told me.He flung off his outer coat, one I had not seen him wear before, and picked me up from the sofa, like I was a sack of flour. Do you have any idea how embarrassing this was?“What the fuck?” I shouted. “What are you doing?”I knew what he was doing. Of course I did. He’d done it how many times already? He was going to take me to my bedroom and throw me onto my gigantic bed and fuck my brains out. I still had my pride, though, so of course I had to put up a fight! I battled him every step of the way: while he sucked me off, while he drilled me from behind, while he took me on my back and made me come for a third time. I fought him, cursed him, begged him to let me go. I curled the strands of his long blond hair in my fingers and told him, in the deepest corner of my heart, “I love you.” It was too much to say out loud, but I could say it in that place where no one else could hear.Afterwards, when we were lying in bed and I was feeling loose and boneless from hours of fucking, I brought up the things Katze had told me earlier.“Is it true,” I ventured, “that you’ve taken shit because of me?"“Oh?” Iason sounded truly surprised. “Are you saying you care about me?”“No fucking way,” I snapped back. “It’s just that…people talk, ya know. I hear things.”“Is that so?” Iason laughed. “Well, you should work harder then and make something of yourself, unless you want people to think you’re an idiot interested in nothing but senseless gossip.”“Who says I’m interested in gossip? Fuck you!” I punched him in the chest, my cheeks on fire. When he pulled me against him, I didn’t resist, if only to hide my face. Why did he have to do this to me? Why was it so hard to tell him how I really felt? When I was with Guy in the early days, things just came naturally. It wasn’t until I met Iason that everything got fucked up with Guy. But now that I had broken it off with Guy, I didn’t have a clue how to make things work with Iason. Was it me? Was I really that hopeless?Iason kissed the top of my head, he kissed my cheek and patted me on the shoulder. I didn’t dare to look at his face. I didn’t need to look to know how beautiful he was. Instead, I clutched a strand of his blond hair in my fingers and pretended to fall asleep. I loved him; but as much as I loved him, I hated myself! He had ruined my life, and yet, he had given me more than I could ever imagine.
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Nobody knew Riki better than I did. I was his pairing partner, the one who loved him first. I knew every inch of him, the scent of him, his deepest, darkest places…I knew it all.When he told me he was some Blondie’s Pet, I lost it. I couldn’t help it. What self-respecting mongrel wouldn’t be in a blind rage if he was told that the one he loved more than anything in the world had thrown away his pride? A mongrel has nothing but his pride, so for Riki to give that away to someone else…to a fucking Blondie android! It was too much!He had been a Blondie’s Pet.That was like telling me he was unfaithful, not with just one lover after we had sworn fidelity to each other, but to a thousand! A million! The number didn’t matter; it was the worst kind of cheating a mongrel could commit! Do you wanna know why? It was because he hadn’t even cheated with one of our own kind! He had cheated with the worst scum on our planet, with something that didn’t even have hot, red blood in its veins! Those things were ‘created’ to be oppressive overlords. They were freakish unliving machines that kept living, breathing things as Pets, as sex slaves groveling at their feet.But my Riki told me he was such a disgusting thing.Why did he have to tell me those things? Why did he have to say he was some Blondie’s Pet? That wasn’t my Riki! My Riki would never be some Blondie’s Pet!When I thought about it afterwards—and I thought about it day and night—I realized that he had been tricked, coerced, tortured even…maybe that shithead Blondie had threatened my life in order to manipulate Riki…yeah, that’s what it was. Riki had no other choice because he was thinking of me, doing anything he could to save my life. My Riki was true, from start to finish, he was loyal and whatever he said, he meant.It all made sense. As I put the pieces together, it made more and more sense. Riki had disappeared for three years, but even before that, he had been acting weird. That’s when it had started, I was sure of it. Before that, me and Riki were glued hip-to-hip. We could finish each other’s sentences, knew what the other thought without even asking. We loved each other! He was mine and I was his. We had a pack—me, Riki, Sid, Luke, Norris—and we knew how to be together. Then…something happened. It must have been then. Riki got a job that was going to get us the hell out of Ceres. He was making money, good money, because he would bring me expensive shit, things we could never afford to buy before. But when I would ask him if he stole it, he would always laugh and give me some evasive answer. Didn’t he know that I always knew if he lied to me? Maybe it was my own fault, because I knew he was lying to me and yet I let it go. I didn’t want to put him in a corner. He was my Riki, my beautiful dark-haired, dark-eyed Riki. If he was lying to me, then I was sure he had a good reason.But then he was gone. For three long years, he was gone. At first, I thought I had done something to piss him off and he was just cooling his temper somewhere. Or maybe he was sowing his wild oats with some other mongrels and he didn’t want me to know. It hurt my pride to think that this might be the case, but hadn’t I done the same when I had graduated from Guardian and Riki was still inside? Hadn’t I taken other lovers? So, I didn’t begrudge him a few fuck buddies on the side. As long as I didn’t know who they were, I could let it pass. As long as I didn’t cross paths with them, I wouldn’t flip my shit and kill them. But when he finally came back, he didn’t tell me anything. I was so happy and relieved he was still alive, I didn’t dare to push my luck. Even though things weren’t right between the sheets, we were together at least. For me, it was enough just to have him back.I remember…I remember that day I cut his hair. It had gotten long and unruly and we snuck onto the rooftop of an abandoned building carrying a rusty folding chair. It was sunny that day, not a cloud in the sky, and I took out my switchblade and trimmed his dark locks. The strands were so soft and silky between my fingers. Riki sat with his eyes closed, his face tilted towards the blue sky, and I thought to myself, “I don’t care what you’ve done. I will always love you.”In the back of my mind, I wondered if he had been with another, if he had been with a hundred others. In my heart of hearts, I felt stabbed to death if this were so. I wanted no one else but him, but if he had taken a hundred other lovers—let them touch and kiss and fuck him—then I would still let it go, I would still love him. Mongrels were just that way, ya know? We were always hungry for a piece of meat. And if we found and bonded with that one special someone, then everything could be forgiven.But then I punched him that day, when it had been raining torrents after I had been let out of prison. Instead of forgiving him, I had punched him and kicked him like I wanted him dead. I really wanted him dead when he told me he had been a Blondie’s Pet. And not just any Blondie. That Blondie who had showed up late at the Pet auction in Mistral Park when Riki had almost blacked out was the same Blondie who had showed up late at the hotel where I was supposed to meet some high-paying client for a fuck session. It was the same sick asshole. It was this jerk-off who had ruined my Riki! Riki had even told me his name: Iason Mink.I had no doubts. My Riki had been threatened, coerced or whatever. He would never have been a Blondie’s Pet unless he had been given no other choice. There was no other mongrel truer than him, no other mongrel more fearless than him. He was Riki the Dark. He was the boy I loved from the very beginning. That Iason Mink had put his filthy hands on him, violated the flesh only I had a right to touch!That android, that thing…I was going to destroy it. Even if it meant my own death, I was going to kill that thing.“Riki, Riki,” I intoned each night as I lay in bed, my knuckles still aching though the bruises were long gone, “I’ll make it up to you. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ll set you free.”When I told my gang boys what I intended to do, they all laughed at me.“Riki’s fucked off for good,” Sid said. “Forget about him.”Sid was always bedding someone new; he could never understand what it meant to have a one true love."Don’t waste your time feeling lonely,” Luke said. “Money will always keep you warm.”Luke was addicted to gambling, the next big win, even though he was always losing more than he was winning.“Get a new pairing partner,” Norris said. “Start over and settle down.”Norris was already settled down with Maxi, as if that could fix things for me.I didn’t need any of those things, especially money. Riki had given me a gold credit stick before he disappeared a second time and I made good use of it. I bought information, I bought explosives and timers, I bought a las-knife, taser, and drugs. More than anything, I wanted to buy freedom for my Riki.For months I looked for him, chasing leads from my paid informants. Finally, someone spotted him: he had been seen in Apathia of all places. My first reaction was to write it off. Riki and I had never gone there together. It was a district heavily patrolled by Darkmen because the super wealthy kept apartments there, but I had scoped out every other district in Midas and Apathia was the last place I could look for him. It took another month before I saw him enter a high-rise building. I couldn’t believe my eyes, so much so that I convinced Norris to come back with me the next day. I picked noontime when the streets were crowded to sneak into the district. We were both dressed in fancy duds I purchased with the gold credit stick and we blended in pretty good. At least, we weren’t stopped by the Darkmen. Norris kept complaining that we looked like idiots, but I was willing to look like an overdressed idiot and then some if it meant I could find Riki.We waited all day and into the evening at a restaurant across the street. That gold credit stick was a lifesaver, because I had to keep ordering shit for hours, including some mighty fine liquor. Norris and I got trashed, but as long as I kept flashing that credit stick, no one dared to throw us out of the place. The twin moons were just rising in the night sky when I saw him exit the apartment building.I punched Norris in the shoulder, shouting, “There he is!”Even Norris found it hard to believe. He rubbed his eyes and squinted out the window of the restaurant. “It can’t be…shit…” Norris mumbled and stood up, suddenly sober. “Holy fuck…Riki?”He made to bolt for the door but I grabbed his arm and stopped him. “What are you doing?”Norris stared at me, wide-eyed. “Don’t you want to go get him?”“Of course I do!” But not like this. No. I had other plans. Now that I had found him, I knew what I had to do. “The thing is,” I told Norris, “Riki and I…well, you know we fell out with each other. He’s probably still mad at me, so, shit, now that I know where he is, I’m gonna take it slow, okay? I’ll figure out a way to win him back.”Norris stared at me, squinty-eyed now. “What are you up to?”I had what I wanted. I knew for sure that Riki was living in that apartment building; maybe he had a lover in that building, and maybe that lover was Iason Mink. Either way, I didn’t need Norris anymore. I could stake out the place by myself from here on out. The last thing I wanted was to drag anyone else into this. My plan didn’t involve Norris or Sid or Luke. This was between me and Riki, and the asshole who had come between us.
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Riki disappeared all of a sudden. At first, it didn’t trouble me in the least. I had ordered him to lick my boots in front of his pack of mongrel lowlifes when I discovered them in the apartment with him. How they were able to enter the apartment in the first place…well, I could only assume that Riki had let them in; perhaps he had been fornicating with them all over Ceres when he wasn’t working his hours for Katze. Riki was born from filth, so it made sense he would return to it time and again. As long as he remembered he was my Pet first and foremost, a roll in the mud now and then was to be expected.That didn’t mean I would let him slip by without punishment, especially when my Pet loved punishment the most. Riki was made for punishment and I, as his Master, knew best how to inflict the sweetest pain. There was no other Pet prouder than my Riki. To be humiliated in front of his former gang mates was exactly what he deserved. So I commanded him to crawl on his hands and knees across the expanse of the room, press his warm lips to the cold exterior of my boots, and beg me to let his fellow mongrels live another day. He was quite lovely, the way he not only kissed but licked at my feet, the slight arch of his back trembling with fury. I could only imagine how heated his cheeks were—on his face and his firm backside—and it made me forgive all his trespasses.I let them go, those mongrels; I let that one mongrel go.Guy.The days went by. I visited the apartment in Apathia, only to find it empty. According to Katze, Riki had not even bothered to show up for his duties at the warehouse. Fine. That was Riki. He was angry with me. I had known him long enough to understand that a proud mongrel like him needed time to come around and behave himself. I had plenty to keep me busy, until those countless responsibilities fell by the wayside and every moment seemed to go by at a crawl. Even my arguments with Jupiter carried less weight than the one thought running through my mind: Riki, where are you?Time seemed to go backwards. I would stand on the terrace looking down at the lights below and wonder what he was doing, was he well, was he alive? I would stand with a glass of wine in my hand and think about how I had let him go before. Was it a mistake? Had I given him too much freedom? Why? Why did I give him any freedom at all? I was his Master, he was my Pet. When had the tables turned?The call came one evening after I had a heated argument with Raoul. The experiments I had asked him to conduct were producing less than optimal results. Not only that, I discovered that the gold credit stick I had given Riki had been activated numerous times in Midas. What was Riki doing buying explosives? But the call I received wasn’t from Riki threatening to blow up my penthouse in Eos Tower as payback for making him lick my boots. No. It was from that scumbag mongrel Guy.“Meet me at Dana Bahn tomorrow. Come alone. I’ll give Riki back to you.”It was him. Him. It was him all along. Riki’s paring partner…I would rip him to shreds.
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I woke up in a darkened room, my skull splitting apart from the worst headache. I was stretched out on a low dusty mattress, my body aching all over, limbs tingling.“How are you feeling?” came a disembodied voice.Despite the headache and pain in my joints, I recognized that voice immediately. Knowing that voice so well, fear left me in an instant and relief so strong washed over me in its place, wave after wave of it; I would have cried if I weren’t equally pissed off. “I feel fucking great,” I lied. “Where am I?”“Dana Bahn.”That had me sitting up in a hurry, genuinely surprised. “Huh?” The room spun about and my stomach lurched with nausea. I swallowed down the bitter, sour taste, wondering why I didn’t just let it come out. I’d vomited on myself plenty of times before. After what seemed like an eternity, the dizziness subsided and I finally took a good look at my surroundings: a barren room lit by a single lamp, some crap industrial furniture, walls stained with rust, the smell of acetone. My old apartment on the border of Ceres was a kickass bachelor pad compared to this dump.Recent events trickled back into my brain. I remembered clocking out at work, then taking a stroll around the main shopping boulevard in Apathia, poking my head into this or that store, having no intention of buying anything. Why should I? All I had to do was ask and Iason would send Cal to bring me whatever I wanted. I had a job working in the Black Market again for Katze, I had money I didn’t need to spend. It was all a fantasy, an illusion to satisfy my pride. If some worker fucked up on a delivery outside of Midas or Tanagura, Katze would always send someone else to make things right, never me.“He won’t allow me to go, right?” I said to Katze. It wasn’t really a question because we both knew the answer. It was just me admitting that we both knew what our Master wanted. That Iason. My life was lived on his terms. Still, no matter how short the leash, it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty sweet. Even if he acted like a jerk now and then, teasing me about needing to improve myself, the phenomenal sex made up for it. I was thinking about him as I walked back to my apartment, wondering if he was going to show up and do his usual perverted things to me, when I heard the hum of an aero bike behind me, then the sudden revving of its engine, a loud crash. I turned and was blinded by headlights. The bike was almost on top of me, the helmeted rider oddly familiar. Maybe it was the shape of his silhouette, it reminded me of—My teeth hurt down to the roots as jolts of electricity knocked me to the ground. Then nothing.Now this. I swiveled around on the mattress and faced him. Guy was sitting on a chair staring back at me looking none too happy. Well, I had done nothing to make him happy for ages, so I wasn’t surprised about his gloominess. “Dana Bahn? Where the uprising took place?”Guy’s mouth twitched, his lips curling into a smile that wasn’t friendly in the least. “This place might be a shithole, but it’s a handy place to hide out.”My head throbbed like crazy at that. I wasn’t wrong. It was Guy on that aero bike, it was Guy who had tasered me and brought me here. What the hell did he hope to accomplish? All he had done really was to make an enemy of a lunatic Blondie. Who knows what that android would do to him! Even now, though, I didn’t want Guy to face Iason’s wrath. “Hide out? You wish.” I shook my head, wincing at the pain. “We’ll be found out any minute. My Pet ring has a tracer embedded in it.”“Hah,” Guy snorted. “Tracers are no good here. This place is shielded.”Ah, shit. Right. Dana Bahn was a dead-zone, made so by the Elites after the uprising so mongrels could no longer have any means of communication there. Only now, Guy was using it to his own advantage.“I brought you here because I want the truth,” he went on, his tone dead serious. “I want to know how you really feel.”“What for?” I groaned. “It won’t change anything.” I knew what he was after. I knew he wanted me to choose him over Iason, but I really didn’t have a choice in this at all. Why couldn’t he accept it? Hadn’t I licked Iason’s boots in front of him, in front of all my Bison mates? Wasn’t that enough to prove it was hopeless? “I was his Pet for three years…you have no idea what it is to be his Pet.” Guy didn’t know the agony, or the ecstasy. “I didn’t know it either until I came back. Then…then I knew; he was inside me, like a drug. I’ll never be free of him. Nothing you do will ever change that.”“Just forget him!” Guy shouted.As if I hadn’t tried! “You don’t understand!” I screamed back. “You don’t get it at all!” If only yelling could fix things, my life would be rainbows and sunshine by now.“Right,” Guy stood up. “I don’t understand you and your lame ass excuses. You’d rather live like a coward, like a beaten dog groveling at his feet? You’d rather be kept as a disgusting Pet your whole life?”It was the same argument playing out all over again. I couldn’t take it. “How many times are we going to do this? How long do I have to put up with your stupidity?”“Until that asshole gives up first.”“He’s never going to give up!” I grabbed Guy’s jacket in frustration. He really had no clue who he was dealing with. “You think you can outlast him? Wrong! He’s fucking immortal! Listen to me, Guy, this isn’t some pissing contest. What you’re doing isn’t just a slap in the face to him. You’re shitting on a Blondie’s pride!”“You sure about that?” Guy sneered. “You really think a high and mighty Blondie like him cares about a stupid Pet? So what if I stole you from him? Would he be mad enough to do anything about it? Spare me. He’s probably got a new Pet to replace you already.”Guy’s obstinacy had me wishing my headache would just crack my skull in two and end my misery. I couldn’t get through to him. If it were some other Blondie—one of the normal ones—then Guy would be right: no Blondie would give two shits about the life of a Pet. I’d seen it with my own eyes down in the warehouse, where discarded Pets met their fate: the ones that were still serviceable were shipped off to brothels, other ones deemed too old at sixteen were sold into even worse slavery. The lucky ones were chopped up, their organs harvested for the Black Market. And yet here I was, still alive as a Pet at nearly twenty years old and being kept in a luxury apartment, all because Iason Mink was no normal Blondie. He was a freak through and through.Not that Guy could understand, but he kept pushing me until I had to do what he wanted. It was the only way to make him stop this insanity. “You really want to know how I feel?”“Yeah. Tell me something I can actually believe. Convince me.”It sounded like such a simple request, but it was everything Guy left unspoken that screamed the loudest. I was a liar; I had lied to him even before Iason took me. Even so, lying wasn’t a crime, especially in Ceres, but disloyalty was, especially in Ceres. Between pairing partners, cheating came with a death sentence. Guy had every right to kill me for what I had done. Shit, pairing partners would kill over eyes that roamed, but I had done the dirty deed for over three years with Iason, and was still doing it! I should have died the moment I admitted the truth to Guy in his apartment. He had let me go then; he was giving me a way out now, too. Only, there was no way out of it. Even if I chose Guy—and in my heart of hearts, I loved him so bad!—Iason would never leave me alone.Which was fine by me. So, even though it was the last thing I ever wanted to do, I did it. I stripped out of my clothes—the first time I let Guy see me naked since the abduction all those years ago—and showed him the Pet ring around the base of my cock.“You want to know how I really feel?” I said, my voice shaking as he gaped at me. “I’ll show you then. Take a good long look, Guy, this is the real me.” I pinched my nipple. “All he has to do is touch me here and I’m hot for him.” I brought my fingers to my other nipple, barely caressing it before dropping my hand down to my groin. I gave my cock a quick squeeze, saying, “He likes to touch me here, and here, too,” as I rubbed my fingertips at my hole. I know. I was being unforgivingly cruel, but I needed to wake Guy up from his rose-colored dream of us getting back together. There was no faster trip to Outsville than telling him I had a better lover. “He showed me all my good spots. As long as I’m wearing his Pet ring, I can’t get enough of him fucking me. You got no right to ruin that!”Really, I couldn’t believe what I was saying but the words kept coming out of my mouth like a torrent of unending bullshit. I expected Guy to beat the ever living crap out of me—I sure as hell would have if the tables were turned—but the shattered expression on his face…he looked like a crushed cockroach instead.He fell on his knees in front of me, hands gripping my forearms, and pleaded, “It can’t be just me. I can’t be the only one who doesn’t get to love you. Don’t I have the right to love you more than he does? I knew you first! I loved you first, not him! You loved me first, too, Riki, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t say that! Don’t look at me like that! His own sorrow stabbed me in the chest. The panic, too, and the loss of everything I held deep in my heart. He was my first love; Guy was that and the one I thought I would fight alongside with, grow old with if we were lucky, die with, then and now. If only…if only…If I didn’t get my shit together, I’d get pulled into a fantasy of wishful thinking with him. I turned my back so I wouldn’t have to see the pain and accusation in his eyes. “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want!” I told him as much as I told myself. “Don’t make me say it again.”Guy kept at it, insisting, “Why? How could you choose him over me? I won’t have it! I’ll never accept it!”The next thing I knew, I felt him pressed against my back, his body shaking as much as my own. He wrapped his arms around my chest, his breath warm at my cheek. I suddenly remembered the way he kissed me the first time, how careful and tender he was, and I wanted to cry, I wanted to go back and forget everything but him and me when all we had was our love for each other.He spoke quietly now, his voice low and sweet with nostalgia. “Back then, when you were our leader, everyone would look at you on the street. Do you have any idea how proud I was to be with you? It felt like the whole world was there for us to take, like we could do anything. Are you really going to destroy everything we had? Are you really going to betray us all? Riki, my darling, my dear, I’m not asking you to come back to the gang, or even to me. Just don’t be his. Not him. I won’t let you be his toy for the rest of your life.” He wrapped his fist around my cock and squeezed it firmly. “And don’t tell me to stay out of it. He started it, he stole what was mine first, so there’s no way I’m backing down.” Guy ran his fingers around the cold metal of the Pet ring a few times, as if he were measuring its strength. “So, this is the thing that makes you his slave?” He pressed his warm lips to my bare shoulder, kissed it. “Why don’t we take it off?”My whole body slumped. I felt utterly drained of energy, I couldn’t think straight anymore, not even to save my manhood. “Only he can take it off,” I muttered.Guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a las-knife. Those things cost a bundle, and you needed a legit ID—something no mongrel would have—to purchase one, but he had gotten past those obstacles somehow. He turned it around a few times in his hand, making no attempt to hide what he was scheming. “I was going to test this out on that asshole sugar daddy of yours. I did the research. This model can cut through titanium like cardboard. That’s what those Blondies are made of underneath. Titanium.” His gaze fell to the Pet ring circling snugly around the base of my cock. “What d’ya figure your Pet ring is made of?” He tapped the handle of the knife against the ring. “It’s about time I set you free.”In the end, I didn’t put up a fight. I couldn’t say ‘no’ to Guy, just as I couldn’t say ‘no’ to Iason. Was I too greedy? I couldn’t hope for Guy’s forgiveness but I wanted him to love me anyway. And Iason. I could admit it now: sex with him was an addiction I craved, but things were going downhill for Iason according to Katze, and I was the reason behind all the criticism. Even Tanagura’s most elite Blondie was being held accountable for what he was doing with me. He wasn’t unassailable. I was his one weak spot. Me. The thought of him losing everything just to keep a mongrel like me as a Pet was ridiculous. I didn’t know where or how this was going to end, but as Guy continued to tap the las-knife against my Pet ring, all I wanted was for this to be over with: the guilt, the worry, the regret. It felt like a ton of bricks weighing me down. I wanted it off my shoulders, no matter the outcome. I looked Guy in the eyes, searching for something, an assurance of love I guess, an indication that he was the same boy I knew in Guardian, the one I trusted the most.“Guy…” Would it really be over if I let him do this? Would I really be free? And would Iason be free of me? Before I could say more, Guy went over to a bag on the floor and began rummaging through it, pulling out a vial and a syringe.“Come here, Riki. Lie down.” He patted the mattress I had woken up on earlier. “I’ll make it quick. It won’t hurt.”It won’t hurt. Whatever drug he was going to inject in me…had he planned on knocking me out right from the start? “How long were you going to keep me here all doped up?” I asked. I sat on the mattress and held out my left arm so he could find a vein. I wasn’t angry, just resigned.“It’s like I said before,” Guy replied as he filled the syringe with a clear fluid from the vial. “I was just going to hole up here with you until the storm blew over. I wasn’t going to let you suffer.”Yeah, I thought, you were going to send me to la-la-land while you went on your suicidal quest to chop up a Blondie. “Now that we’re doing things your way, you’re over it, right Guy? You’re not gonna do anything stupid?” The needle pricked into the crook of my arm; we both watched the syringe empty its magic elixir into my vein. I had little time to talk. “Promise me—”“Shhhh, lie down baby, relax.” Guy pushed me flat on my back and laid a blanket over me. “I promise I won’t do anything stupid.”For some reason, that supremely false statement had me laughing, my whole body convulsing under the thin blanket as Guy stared back at me with a frown. That made me laugh even more. What a massive clusterfuck of nonsense! “My life…” I barely choked out between gut wrenching giggles, “...it’s just too funny!” My limbs began to feel light as a feather, the edges of the dark room grew fuzzier and fuzzier, and I settled into a dreamy state of mind. It had been a while since I had gotten so wasted from drugs. No, all of my euphoric moments had come after the fuckfests with Iason, when I would lay in his arms and chat about stupid stuff. Oh, what I would give to stay like that...what I would give to let it all go.
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In the entirety of my life, nothing was quite like That Day, not even the week leading up to it when Riki suddenly went AWOL. On That Day, my Master lost his mind practically. No, I take that back. My Master literally lost his mind and I suppose I did as well.The first inkling of trouble came when Iason called me out of the blue, asking in his usual nonchalant manner, “Why do you suppose Riki might need explosives?”I almost spit out my drink, what I should have done even if it was uncouth and would have dirtied the video screen, because I choked on the liquor instead and spent nearly six minutes coughing up half a lung. Explosives? How could Iason be so blasé about such a thing? Perhaps he was jaded by all the previous attempts on his life. After I recovered from my coughing fit, I gave his question serious consideration. Riki was a hothead and prone to violence, always itching for a fight, but he was never one to get sophisticated when it came to vengeful acts. “He’s had a few run-ins with several of the workers in the warehouse,” I admitted. “What else is new?” On screen I saw Iason scowl, so I quickly straightened up and elaborated, “I had a talk with him and he gave no indication that he intended to, uh, blow anything up.” If a situation like this had arisen four or five years ago, I might suspect that Riki wanted to murder our Master, but now, with Iason letting Riki have his way in everything, it didn’t make sense. “How do you know he’s buying explosives?” As if there was anything Iason didn’t know.“I gave him a gold credit stick when I sent him out of Eos Tower the first time. He never used it before. Last month, though, he purchased our very own Black Market C4 blocks, timers, detonators. He also purchased a stun gun and a las-knife. Do you think I might be his target?”“You’re asking me now?” I blurted helplessly. It was rude and out-of-line, but I was flustered that Riki had managed to purchase these highly controlled items right under my nose. Outside of Eos Tower, Riki was my responsibility and I had fallen down on the job. Fortunately, for the sake of my own neck staying intact, gold credit sticks were the private property of Blondies and purchases made with them were untraceable to all except the Blondies themselves. It gave them carte blanche to buy whatever they wanted, no questions asked.Out of the million thoughts careening in my mind, one stood foremost: why oh why had my Master insisted on keeping Riki as a Pet despite all the rules against it, even housing him in Apathia and letting him ‘work’ to satisfy his pride?“It seems that the air in Eos Tower doesn’t suit him,” Iason had told me. “Give him his old job back and let him rove about, not too far…just enough. You know what to do.”“Do you love him that much?” I had dared to ask at the time. And all my Master had to do was lower his eyes for me to know. Of course he did.Things had been going relatively smoothly but I just knew it couldn’t last, and I couldn’t exactly tell my Master that he had let his artificial heart govern his supposedly rational brain. A slave does not tell his Master what to do, especially when his Master does what he believes to be well within his rights. Not that long ago, Iason had gone to the apartment in Apathia and found Riki there with his former gang mates. I almost had a stroke when I heard about it. I couldn’t believe Riki had the balls to invite them into what my Master considered a sacred space.“I didn’t invite them, Katze.” Riki insisted. “They just showed up, okay? I was going to send them away but You-Know-Who can’t resist molesting me on the daily and of course he had to show them what a good little Pet I am. Can you believe he ordered me to kiss his boots?” Riki snorted, as if the whole thing was a joke. His red-tinged black eyes, though, told me he was furious with indignation.“What did you do?” I’m pretty certain my own eyes were like saucers. “Surely you—”“I licked them, okay?” he interrupted, still laughing without mirth. “But that freak let my boys go, so I’ll let it go, too.”He said he would let it go. Riki normally stood by his word and yet my Master just told me that Riki had bought explosives around the same time as that latest humiliation. It wasn’t his style to use anything beyond his own fists, but if Riki were angry enough…I made it a point to speak to him at work the next day, talk him down before he did something truly stupid, only he didn’t show up at the warehouse. He was never late for work before, much less be a complete no-show; even when I didn’t allow him to go on delivery runs outside of Tanagura and Midas as per my Master’s orders, he never reneged on his duties out of spite. I waited until the end of the day to report his absence to my Master. “Should I go look for him at the apartment?”“You don’t need to do anything,” Iason told me. “This is a private matter. I’ll take care of it myself.”“But…” Despite my qualms, I stifled myself. Maybe it really was just a lover’s quarrel? Ultimately, it wasn’t my place to question my Master, so I didn’t pursue it further.Then, after a week when I had neither seen nor heard from either Riki or Iason, the alert on my computer sounded. The device I had given to Riki to allow him access to various Black Market warehouses had an embedded GPS tracker, a security measure in case one of the workers failed to complete a run. Black Market goods were often targeted by thieves, the couriers beaten and left for dead. According to Riki’s device, he was somewhere on the west side of Ceres.“Gotcha.” I didn’t bother to call Iason this time. I would find Riki first and give him a piece of my mind. For all I knew, Iason was already with Riki and meting out his own punishment.The signal brought me to T-0-4-101, a once decent apartment complex before the uprising but now derelict and occupied by mongrel drug addicts seeking shelter from the elements. I found him in a fifth floor unit, pills and empty bottles scattered about, slouched in a chair looking ashen and dejected.“I should have known,” I grumbled in disgust. “So which one of you geniuses thought it would be a good idea to have a week-long bender? Was it you or was it Guy?”Riki ignored my question, mumbling instead, “How’s Iason?”“Ask him yourself,” I snapped back.“It’s too late,” he continued to mutter, listless. “I can’t face him anymore.”“Cut the crap. Get off your ass. We’re leaving.” This version of Riki was just asking for a spanking. “Wait’ll Iason—”“I’m telling you I can’t go back to him. I’m…I’m not a man anymore.” He finally raised his head, his dark eyes blank. “I’m like you now. Guy tried to…well, it was the only way to get the Pet ring off. I was willing to pay the price.”My heart jumped into my throat, my brain stopped functioning. For some moments, I couldn’t process what he just said. “That idiot!” I found myself shouting at last. “He’s out of his fucking mind! And you were stupid enough to go along with it?” In my anger, I kicked over a table but Riki didn’t even react. His ass stayed glued to the chair he was sitting on, as if he were waiting for death. “Where is that idiot now?” I yelled.“Dunno,” he sighed. “Dana Bahn maybe. Huh, the ring’s tracer didn’t work there, right? We were hiding out there the whole time. Haha. He’s probably there now. He said something about…cleaning up loose ends.”“Then we’ll head him off there before he does even more stupid shit. You two really are a pair of jackasses!” The thought of Riki’s current condition sickened me, made me want to double over and cover my groin. “Can you walk?” I recalled my own feelings when I first awoke from my…alteration: the disorientation, numbness, the shock of realization. When I helped him out of the chair, Riki looked at me tearfully. I had never seen him cry before.“Katze, thanks. I’ll talk to Guy. He promised me he wouldn’t do anything stupid.”“Too late for that!”I drove like a maniac, dropped Riki off at the main entrance of the complex at Dana Bahn and watched him limp inside the cavernous building. The wind outside was kicking up so much dust, it was hard to breathe, so I sat in my aero car, smoking and thinking as I waited. I could easily imagine what my Master would do to Guy for abducting his Pet, even though Riki seemed to be complicit in this whole fiasco. And Riki…I had no idea how Iason would react to Riki’s maimed body. Blondies expect perfection, but Riki was always far from perfect. Perhaps my Master would forgive him. Oh, such stupidity all around!The sky was beginning to darken when I felt the ground suddenly tremble. Quakes were practically unheard of in this region, but the complex was old, the buildings unstable from disuse and disrepair. I leapt out of the aero car and peered at the main entrance in the near distance. There was another rumble and then a cloud of black smoke appeared from one of the elevator stacks. Before I knew it, orange flames were licking at the sky and I thought, “I’m going to kill Guy myself!”Speak of the devil! Coming towards me was the moron himself, limp as a rag doll and being heaved and dragged along by Riki! “What the hell is going on?” I shrieked. I caught Guy in my arms as Riki collapsed in exhaustion by my feet. After much slapping and shaking, I managed to rouse Riki. “Don’t pass out on me now! We have to get out of here!”“No, no, no.” Riki clutched at me. “Inside…Iason’s still inside.”“Iason? Iason’s here? And you left him alone?” Holy crap! As Riki explained what Guy had done, I was ready to make good my private thoughts and kill Guy on the spot. Riki, though, was begging me to let him go back to our Master, begging and pleading for me to save Guy. I didn’t care about Guy, but I couldn’t stand the idea that Iason was there all alone. What a catastrophe! If he never met you in the first place, this would have never happened! Now you want to die with him? Fine! Go enact your romantic tragedy! I can’t take this anymore! I handed Riki my pack of Black Moon cigarettes. “I always have these on hand in case of an emergency. When the time comes, you won’t feel a thing.”Then I let him go back into the complex, my blood boiling with anger as I tossed Guy into the backseat of the aero car. A las-knife fell out of the pocket of his jacket. It jarred me back to reality. Riki had gone back to Iason to die with him. No Blondie ever died. I had discovered this fact when I had hacked into the secret files of Tanagura as Iason’s Furniture. Besides finding out the truth about Guardian, I learned that ‘death’ for a Blondie meant that they were mind wiped, their memories erased. Their physical bodies, even if destroyed, could be rebuilt over and over. Iason, his appearance at least, could be recreated down to the last eyelash, but if he were mind wiped, then he would have no recollection of Riki. This was the last thing my Master would want, to forget Riki. He loved that damn mongrel as deeply as I loved my Master. I couldn’t let it end like this.I grabbed the las-knife and ran into the building. The smoke was thick and it choked my lungs, but years of cigarette addiction had inured me. By the time I crossed the bridge and found Riki nestled in the crook of Iason’s arm, Riki was unconscious and—holy shit!—my Master’s legs truly had been severed above the knees. There was no way I could carry both of them out before the entire place went down in flames.“Get us to Herbay,” Iason said. “Call Lord Am.”My Master was closest to Lord Am, everyone knew that. Lord Am had a reputation as a mad scientist, everyone knew that, too. He had labs in various locations. I was well acquainted with the one beneath Guardian. I was Iason’s liaison in the Black Market, after all, and the organs harvested in that basement lab were some of the most lucrative products sold on the Black Market. The lab in Herbay I had never visited. Well, what was there to lose? If I didn’t do something, all would be lost for sure.“Lord Mink, my Master, please forgive me!” I cried out. Then I activated the las-knife, put it to my Master’s neck, and lopped off his head in one swift stroke. Seriously, I was out of my mind! I grabbed Riki around the waist with one hand, Iason’s hair twisted in my other hand, and made my way back across the bridge running on pure adrenalin, dodging falling debris all the way. I had barely gunned it out of Dana Bahn with Guy and Riki in the back and Iason’s head in my lap when the air buffeted my vehicle like a leaf in a storm, the facility rocked by repeated explosions. I took the underground tunnel into Herbay, the district bordering Tanagura proper, calling Lord Am as soon as I exited Dana Bahn.“I’m sending you the clearance code to the lab right now,” Lord Am told me, voice strained. “I’ll handle things from there.”When I arrived, a team of medi-droids was waiting at the curb, and then Lord Am strode out of the doorway, white robes flapping behind him. He ordered one of the droids to load Iason’s head into a cryo chamber. I could hear myself rambling hysterically, trying to explain things, the words coming out in a jumble. I doubt I made much sense. In the end, all I remember is hearing Lord Am tell me, “Leave it to me. Now go.” Then he turned, the door to the building shutting in my face.I ended up in my office eventually. It was late and the place was empty and quiet, as dead as I felt in my very cells. I stumbled to my chair and slumped into it, exhausted, but not too exhausted to reach for a new packet of Black Moons. I needed a smoke like nothing else. I needed to forget everything. Slow and deep, I drew in a hit of that sweet, intoxicating drug, and closed my eyes against reality. Please, let me forget. Against the back of my eyelids, I saw it, remembered it: the flames, Riki, my Master, the weight of Iason’s head in my hand. A trickle of wetness running down my cheek startled me awake. The cigarette dropped from my lips and onto the floor, bathed by my tears. I hadn’t cried in ages, not since my manhood had been taken away from me. This, though, was so much worse. Tonight my Master was taken from me, the god I worshipped, my savior, the one I loved more than my own life. What had I done?
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The unaltered human brain is a fragile thing, easily damaged by physical trauma and susceptible to a plethora of influences, be it internal through inherited DNA or external through experiences. Unlike an Elite’s organic brain modified by nanobots designed by Jupiter herself, a pure human brain is difficult to shape with precision, even harder to imprint with foreign memories. Is it any wonder, then, that an entire generation of mongrel orphans was sacrificed? In experiment after experiment, I took the memories of Iason stored in Jupiter’s databank and implanted them into the brains of these mongrel test subjects. They all went mad. The memories of a Blondie, after all, cannot easily be contained, much less passed on to another without substantial corruption. That is why Jupiter deemed it proper to mind wipe an errant son. It was better to start with a clean slate rather than risk insanity with a used model.What was I to do? What choice did I have? I wanted to fulfill Iason’s greatest wish, a twofold wish: to keep his mongrel Pet, and to make Riki happy. It was a wish—nothing less than a double-edged sword—that posed a conundrum. A Blondie would never want a mongrel Pet in the first place, and a mongrel would never be happy as a Blondie’s Pet. And yet, the two of them had formed a bond that was as unbreakable as it was incompatible. I didn’t want to believe such a thing could happen, but it did.
What if I told you I loved him?
That confession straight from my brother’s lips had broken my artificial heart into a million pieces. How? Why? Wasn’t I enough for him? But it got worse, so much worse. Even when Jupiter threatened again to have Iason mind wiped after Riki went missing, he still refused to obey her directive. I could only do what was in my own power to do.“I won’t do it,” I told Iason, “I won’t mind wipe you.” Refusing a command from Jupiter meant ‘death’ and I was willing to ‘die’ for Iason. I wouldn’t mind wipe him even if Jupiter demanded it from me.Well, that ended up being a lie. Sort of.Even in Eos Tower, the flames were seen clear as day. I saw it with my own eyes and I knew it then. My dearest brother had walked a path beyond the point of no return. And if I knew it, then Jupiter surely knew it as well.To be honest, I was surprised that an ex-Furniture would have the wherewithal to do what Katze did. There were many times when Iason would tell me that his faulty human ex-Furniture was intelligent, talented, worth more than the lower Elites created by Jupiter. I let it go in one ear and out the other even as Katze continued to serve him in the Black Market.“Keep Daryl’s DNA intact,” Iason said. “Make me a clone.”This was another one of his errant Furniture, a useless thing as far as I was concerned, one that had let Riki escape Eos Tower. But because Iason asked me for the favor, I did it, I extracted Daryl’s DNA—something as simple as cutting a strand of his silvery blond hair—before his body was sent to the incinerator.“Don’t let me forget,” Iason said.So I did that, too. I tried to.You see, it wasn’t that simple. To keep Iason’s memories intact, I had to circumvent all the rules Jupiter insisted on maintaining. No son of hers would be allowed to stray beyond the boundaries she had set, and Iason had not only strayed, he had walked a million miles past those boundaries. That he would be mind wiped was a given, even if I told him I wouldn’t do such a thing. Jupiter would force my hand in the end, so…I told Iason with a clean conscience that I would never mind wipe his brain. It was a lie. I knew it was a lie even as I told him. The bodies piled up, higher and higher. Those filthy mongrel corpses…they wouldn’t cooperate when alive, they were even more useless in death.And then…It was Katze who presented me with a solution I had as yet to find. The mongrel test subjects I had used before had never known Riki in person. Within a day or two after the memory implants, they went berserk and killed themselves. Kirie had survived the longest, only because he had not only known Riki, but had been obsessed with him. This I realized only after I had run through all of Guardian’s current ‘graduates.’That night, though, Katze brought me the decapitated head of Iason, his brain completely intact. Unlike the brain of a normal human, the modified organic brain of a Blondie needs no oxygen. The nanobots implanted in a Blondie’s organic brain are what enable it to function even if the body housing it is destroyed. The nanobots create their own environment, generating the electricity that drives the synapses and keeps a brain fully functional. Just as important, Katze also brought me the living body of Riki’s old pairing partner, a mongrel named Guy. I don’t know why I thought this mattered…perhaps it was the way Iason always spoke of his degenerate Pet, the way he said that Riki refused to let go of his first love with such sadness in his voice. For a Blondie to feel sadness was incomprehensible, but that was Iason. He was beyond comprehension. What was love to a Blondie? Love for a Blondie was supposed to be loyalty to Jupiter, but my own secret, guilty, lustful fixation on Iason made me understand what my brother truly wanted.A part of me wished for failure. To start all over again was a good thing. I couldn’t be blamed. I could pretend that nothing had happened. I was Raoul Am and he was Iason Mink. We could both be Jupiter’s loyal sons. But I couldn’t forget what Iason said to me before.
What if I told you I loved him?
It always came back to that horrifying statement. Love. It was a human emotion, one that Elites were never to feel, and yet Iason felt it for his Pet, just as I felt it for my own beautiful brother. The truth of it was a difficult thing to grasp, but one that I finally understood.So, the other part of me wished for success. In all my prior attempts, I had used the memories stored in Jupiter’s databank and I had failed repeatedly, but this time I was using the nanobots harvested directly from Iason’s brain. “Please,” I murmured to myself, “please don’t let him forget.”I wanted him back, my beloved brother, I wanted Iason to be himself again, like he was before that filthy mongrel had ruined him. If I could have Iason back as he was before, then I was willing to do anything and everything to make it happen, even if he hated me.
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When I saw him walk back across that bridge amidst the smoke and flames, all the diatribes leveled against me by my own brothers, Raoul’s incessant nagging, Jupiter’s threats and warnings, they all fell away, swept upwards into the sky leaving me utterly vindicated. Oh, how I had waited for this moment and now it was here at last! Riki had returned to me of his own free will, proof that he was really, truly mine!Even more satisfying was the fact that he had chosen me over that useless meatbag. Only minutes ago, Riki had begged me to save that idiot.“Do you love him that much?” I asked, more than disappointed after I had embraced Riki so tenderly when he appeared alive on the other side of the door shouting for his old pairing partner. I had broken Guy’s arm in three places before tearing the limb from its socket. Riki was tugging at my clothes, though, pleading and sobbing and it made me want to rip all of Guy’s limbs clean off his torso.“You don’t understand! We pushed him too far. We made him do this!” Riki cried. “I can’t leave him to die like this. I could never live with myself.”I had no choice but to sling Guy’s listless body over my shoulder, if only to quiet Riki. Guy this, Guy that…when would I ever be free of this infernal pest? This lowly mongrel was such a thorn in my side. I should have ended his life when I lured him to that hotel, but it was too late to regret an opportunity wasted. The structure was rocked by a series of explosions, and then when it began crumbling around us on the bridge, I could only toss both of them to safety, first Guy, then Riki. Riki said he couldn’t live if Guy died, so there it was: I would be the loser with no legs.But he was my Riki, always surprising me, defying my expectations. He walked back across that bridge like a vision, blurry at first, then clearer and clearer, until he was standing right in front of me.“I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone, so here I am,” he said. “Just tell me if you think I’m being obnoxious. I was never good at flirting, ya know.”He settled down beside me—no, snuggled down beside me, so adorable!—and offered me a cigarette. I recognized the brand immediately. They were Black Moons, the ones manufactured and sold in the Black Market.“Why not?” I replied, though I never touched those things in the past.I had always made Riki smoke on the terrace in Eos Tower, and he had never smoked Black Moons before. Only Katze smoked Black Moons habitually. I knew then that we were saved. Sure enough, moments after Riki lost consciousness, Katze came running across the bridge, his face as red as his hair. It was rather amusing how panicked my ex-Furniture was. I told him what to do, confident that my brother Raoul would make things right.Oh Raoul, you bastard son of Jupiter!After I regained initial consciousness, it took months for me to realize what had transpired, my thoughts were so murky. Sight and sound were denied me at first. I had awareness, but barely. I was floating in darkness for the better part of it, time passing, reality muffled, until clarity returned one day. My senses were much dulled, my strength almost nil, but I finally felt grounded in the present. Nothing was as I expected. My immediate desire was to wring Raoul’s neck. Only he could be responsible for my predicament, but there was little chance of approaching Raoul in my current state. I wouldn’t be able to order Katze to do this or that either, not as I was now, and Katze was my only means of reaching my brother Raoul. I was trapped, helpless for the first time in my long life.Regardless, the presence of the black-haired mongrel sleeping next to me calmed my fury well enough. I reached over with my one remaining arm and touched Riki’s hair, brushed it away from his face. Even in sleep, he looked angry. It made me smile with an unbounded sort of happiness, rather strange but something I could get used to quickly. This weak body clammy with sweat would take far more time to get used to. Riki stirred and opened his eyes. Immediately, his frown deepened.“Cut it out, Guy.” He rolled over, turning towards the wall so I couldn’t see his face. “Quit staring at me.”Guy. He called me Guy, that idiot pairing partner of his, my enemy were I able to deem him so. Truthfully, he was not worthy of being my enemy, not even close. My stomach seethed when I recalled what that moron had done, but then the curve of Riki’s exposed shoulder blade caught my eye and I fell to staring once more. We were in Riki’s small apartment, the one he rented from Katze, the one I had visited when I had had enough of waiting for him to return to me. I had taken him on this very bed then. I would take him again now. When I caressed his hip, though, he batted my hand away.“For fuck’s sake,” Riki grumbled, “we already did it last night. My ass is still sore.”Did we? Ah. “Up to your slimy tricks again?” I asked silently.“Oh, that’s rich coming from a scumbag parasite like you. Count yourself lucky I don’t off you one of these days.”“Then we both lose,” I reminded him.“Damn straight,” Guy retorted in his usual uncouth manner. “So shut your trap, get in the backseat and fucking stay there.”Guy was none too bright, but he had discovered that drinking a copious amount of stout could cause my consciousness to temporarily shut down. During those moments, I had no inkling of what he was doing. Needless to say, the mongrel was bent on being inebriated as much as humanly possible, to the point where even Riki was beginning to complain. What a good Pet, my Riki, unknowingly siding with his Master. I had yet to reveal to him my presence, though I wished to do so very much. It was a delicate situation, one I had to handle with care and patience. On the one hand, Riki did not appear to be miserable. Prickly, yes, but not unhappy. He wasn’t even disturbed by his missing genitalia.“Why don’t we get you a prosthetic replacement?” I ventured nonchalantly. When sober, I could easily push Guy’s consciousness to the side and speak my own mind. “I still have that gold credit stick you gave me. You can pick whatever model you like.”Riki clenched his jaw and fists. “Why don’t you get a prosthetic arm instead?” he snapped in typical mongrel fashion. “At least it’d be useful.”At times like this, I could not understand him. Why was he so angry at my suggestion? But then that annoying Guy butted in with an unsolicited comment. He was always butting in when I was most distracted by Riki’s sarcasm.“Holy shit, could anyone be dumber than you?” Guy sniggered.“Dumb?” I retorted. “I have never been dumb.”“You’re dumber than a brick,” Guy accused. “Can’t you tell? Sheesh. You Blondies have no idea how to get down and dirty.”“What are you talking about?” It wasn’t that I really wanted to ask, but in my current condition, all my thoughts were heard instantaneously by this cursed mongrel, so no matter how I tried to stifle myself, I knew that idiot would hear me. Indeed, he did.“Ya got one arm, okay? What good is a mongrel with one arm in the sack? I mean, what if he wants you to pound him from behind while he’s on your lap facing away from you? How ya gonna grip both of his ankles? Don’t you know that’s Riki’s favorite way of getting off?”Truthfully, I had never taken Riki that way in Eos Tower, nor in the apartment in Apathia, and he had never asked me to do such a thing. This revelation from Guy made me feel less than adequate. So, I decided that I would observe their interactions. Stuck as I was, I would make the most of a horrible situation and learn more about my Pet’s preferences through this lowest of slumdogs. I learned several things as time went on.Rule number one: never make mention of Pets. The mere word would drive my host body insane and thereby upset my Pet. I mean Riki.Rule number two: no means no. If my Pet, I mean Riki, says no to sex, then my appendage should be tucked back into my trousers rather than forcefully rammed into his good spot for his own pleasure.Rule number three: a Pet, I mean Riki, is not an accessory or a sex toy, but something, I mean someone, to be put on a pedestal and worshipped.More often than not, watching Guy fawn upon Riki was entertaining if not cringeworthy. I had to give him credit for having the balls—or perhaps it was pure shamelessness—to take whatever Riki dished out. It did occur to me that I had done the same, allowing Riki to heap curses upon me, but I had always known that I was above it all. No amount of mud-slinging could reach the heights at which I stood. Now, after listening in behind the scenes, I began to realize that this was what they considered to be love. It wasn’t about standing high or lying low, it wasn’t about having power or being powerless, it wasn’t about winning or losing. It was the battle fought together, it was the sharing of the struggle, that bound them.The more I learned, the more I wondered: could I, should I reveal myself? If I grasp for more, will I destroy what we have? Would the rewards, whatever they may be, outweigh the risks? Who would Riki choose, me or Guy, if he had to choose now? From what I could gauge, Guy still had the upper hand. He was in control. Even if I could speak directly to Guy, I could rarely make my own thoughts known to Riki during the few moments when Guy was sober and, even then, I was cautious. Riki had chosen to ‘die’ with me at Dana Bahn, but he hadn’t rejected Guy either, not when he opened his eyes and asked about me, and then kissed that mongrel nonetheless after we had shared our last kiss on that burning bridge. Did he love me or did he love that old pairing partner of his? I had to know. Either way, I would not lose.
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I woke up and saw grey eyes staring back at me. Guy. He was holding my hand and saying, “Riki, you’re finally awake!” The warmth of his hand squeezing my own was so familiar and nothing like the touch of his hand. It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t I supposed to be dead? Didn’t I die on that bridge at Dana Bahn with Iason?Am I dreaming? I must be dreaming, I thought.On my tongue was the sweet taste of that Black Moon cigarette, the sweet taste of our last deep kiss. It’s what I wanted. I wanted to kiss Iason, my Master, I wanted to kiss him with my entire soul, but all I could offer was a cigarette given to me by Katze. As the leader of Bison, I had been reckless and brave, but in front of my mutilated Master I was so weak and shy, even after all the shameless things I had done for his own sick pleasure. In some small corner of my heart, I wished for the impossible, that a Blondie like him would love me like I was worth his time, his gaze, his touch even though I was so far beneath him. So I offered him that cigarette, too shy to tell him I loved him and wanted nothing more than to die with him.After all that, I was still alive.I had survived somehow, but I could still feel the heat of the flames all around me, the solid weight of Iason’s arm around my shoulders as the platform beneath us shook and swayed. Right. I had gone back to die with him. Guy was safe. Katze would take him away from Dana Bahn. I had nothing else to worry about, nothing else to keep me in this world. All I wanted to do was sit beside Iason like a dog content to lay by his Master’s feet. I remembered saying some pretty embarrassing shit, sappy stuff that made me want to cringe now but when you believe that your life is ending, well, all kinds of crap get said.So what was this? Why was Guy holding my hand when I was supposed to be dead? Round and round my memories played on an endless loop. It was hard to know what was real.“Riki?” Guy said for the umpteenth time, his teary eyes red and puffy. “You’re finally awake.”My throat was so dry, it felt like I was swallowing razor blades when I tried to speak. “What the fuck…what happened?”“That redhead went back for you. What’s his face…Katze? He saved you.”“Huh?” The room spun around me as I tried to sit up. “Iason…did Katze save Iason?”Guy’s grey eyes darkened as he let go of my hand. “I can’t believe you’re still thinking about that piece of shit.”I almost fell out of bed, begging, “Tell me! What happened to Iason?"“He’s dead, alright? That pervert got blown to smithereens.”My heart stopped. Time seemed to stop. Iason was gone? How could he be gone when I was still here? I was supposed to die with him! “Is this real?” I asked. “Tell me I’m dreaming!”Guy smiled back at me, hugged me and kissed me and whispered in my ear, “It’s no dream, baby. You’re really free now. It’s just you and me now.”I laid back down and closed my eyes. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, so loud it sounded like the roar of an interstellar jet taking off. Did I do this? Did I ruin everything for everyone? All I wanted to do was sleep, just sleep and never wake up again.Of course, I did wake up again. I had to take a piss so bad. When I stumbled out of bed, I realized I was in my old crummy apartment on the outskirts of Ceres, not the posh one in Apathia, so I knew I had to go to my right instead of my left to the toilet. I shoved my shorts down past my hips and reached for my dick and, fuck, there was nothing there but a stump. Right. Guy had sliced my dick off with that las-knife. I turned around and sat my ass down on the toilet and listened to my piss hitting the front of the bowl.Get your shit together, I told myself.A day later, or maybe it was months later, I left my apartment. Time meant nothing to me, not when time was meaningless. But that day, whatever day that was, Guy was nowhere to be seen, so I made my way out of Ceres to the pharmacy in Midas. The droid that guarded the entrance didn’t try to stop me, so I walked in and headed down the aisle with all the lubes and rubbers on display and shoved the door to the basement steps aside.Katze. I had to talk to Katze. That redhead had to give me some answers. He was sitting at his terminal at his desk. Nothing had changed. Katze was still Katze.“Is he alive?” I asked as soon as I slammed his office door open.Katze continued tapping on his keyboard as if I wasn’t there. He paused only to suck on his cigarette before going back to whatever he was inputting on his keyboard.I walked up to him and tossed the keyboard across the room. “Iason! Is he alive?” I shouted in his face. Katze stubbed out his cigarette and lit a new one, never looking up at me. Katze had always looked me in the eyes before. A mongrel who couldn’t look you in the eyes…“What do you think?” he said, his gaze in his lap. He took another hit of his Black Moon cigarette.Strands of red hair fell across his face, obscuring it. I couldn’t see his eyes or his scar. His scar. I felt a stab in my chest, in my groin. And then I understood for the first time. Katze had more than enough money to eliminate that scar on his face, and yet he kept it. I had more than enough money, too. That gold credit stick that Iason had left me. Just the other day—I remembered it now—just the other day Guy told me that we could have my missing cock ‘replaced’ with a new and better version. The idea had made me so angry. Replace it? Why would I ever replace it? Why would I erase what I held so close to my heart? Guy had cut off my cock because he loved me—he thought he was setting me free—but to me that cauterized stump was a reminder of my Master, of his hold over me, and I never wanted to forget it. Katze had been Iason’s Furniture. Did he keep that scar on his face in the same way I kept that cauterized stump of my cock as a reminder of Iason, our Master, and our love for him?Whatever. I needed to know if Iason was alive and who better could tell me but Katze?“Tell me!” I screamed. In my pocket was a switchblade I carried everywhere I went—no mongrel in Ceres was without one—and I pulled it out and held the point of it to my neck. “If Iason is dead, then I’ll go too. I promised him! I went back to die with him!” The knife wavered in my hand, my whole arm was shaking. It wasn’t until my switchblade dropped onto the floor that I realized I was crying like a loser. “Iason,” I sobbed, “is he dead?”Katze stood up from his desk, shoulders slumped. He picked my switchblade up from the floor and examined it for a few moments, and then he put it back in my hand, curling my limp fingers around the shaft. “Come back next week,” he said. “There’ll be a Pet auction at Mistral Park. I’ll take you there. You’ll have an answer then.”A week later, I went back to Katze’s office. Guy insisted on tagging along, so I let him. Guy was full of questions, like who was Katze and what business did I have with him? I told the truth, sort of; I told him that Katze was who I worked for all those years ago, when I was trying to get us out of the slums.“He was my boss when I worked as a courier in the Black Market.”“Why didn’t you tell me then?” Guy asked. “I could have been a courier, too. Did you think I couldn’t do the job?”“It wasn’t that,” I shot back, angry. Why the heck didn’t I ask Katze to hire Guy, too, back then? Guy would have been more than great at it. “I guess…I wanted to be the one to get us out of here.” That was it, wasn’t it? My pride wouldn’t have it any other way. Me and my pride. “Forget about it. Don’t come with me.”“Oh, I’m coming with you,” Guy said. “Even you can’t stop me.”It was like déjà vu all over again: the posh crowd of moneyed buyers, the fancy aero cars dropping off wealthy collectors, the odd and exotic foreigners from all over the stellar quadrant hoping to bring home an Academy-bred Pet. Katze had a VIP pass and he led me and Guy to a private suite in the auction hall itself. I had never been in the seats, much less a private suite. I had only been on the stage, chained and drugged as I was sold off. My memory of it was so vague, like I was looking into a foggy past, the outlines blurry; the only clear thing that stood out in my mind was that I was sold for cheap.The private suite was definitely not cheap. Guy and I sat on either side of Katze. In front of us were two unoccupied seats. On stage was a Pet, the bidding underway. A service droid entered to take our drink orders.“Gimme some stout,” Guy said, “and make sure it’s the good stuff.”“I’ll have the same,” I said.Katze lit up a cigarette and waved the droid off.Pet after Pet was offered on stage. Guy and I drank stout and Katze smoked Black Moon after Black Moon. I was getting pretty wasted and thinking I should ask Katze why the fuck he had brought us here when the door to the private suite opened. Two tall blond-haired Elites entered the room and sat in the seats in front of us. I tapped Katze on the shoulder and whispered, “Who are they?”In response, Katze tapped one of the Blondies on his shoulder and whispered, “Master, these are the two I spoke to you about. Do you give your consent?”The Blondie turned in his seat and looked at Katze, then at me and Guy. My jaw dropped. It was Iason. It was Iason! The private room we were in was dimly lit but I knew his face right away, I wouldn’t mistake him for anyone else. It was Iason! He stared right into my eyes, and then he looked away as if he didn’t know me at all. He looked at Guy, too, as if Guy were a stranger.“Fine,” Iason said. “Hire them.”The other Blondie turned to look at Iason. Raoul Am. It was Raoul Am. He didn’t bother to look at me. He looked at Iason only, and said, “Let’s bid on this next Pet together.”The auctioneer announced the credentials of the Pet led onto the stage, an Academy-bred Pet with characteristics offered for the very first time, one with black hair and black eyes. It looked just like Mimea.
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I was about to call out Iason’s name when Katze grabbed my wrist, whispering, “Follow me.” He yanked me out of the room and down the back staircase.“Wait!” I protested, stumbling as I went. “What about Guy?” Guy was still in that private suite, and Iason was sitting in front of him. Guy had caused a disaster before…he would cause an even bigger disaster now if he saw Iason! And why was Iason still alive? Didn’t Guy tell me that Iason had been killed at Dana Bahn?“Don’t worry about Guy,” Katze said. “He knows what he’s doing.”“But—”“Just come with me.”We exited onto a hallway which ended in a service elevator. From there, the elevator took us down to the ground floor level where we left the auction hall through a side door and onto an alleyway. Ahead of us was the brightly lit boulevard running perpendicular to the auction hall. I knew where we were because me and my Bison boys had hidden in this alleyway before. We had stopped here for a smoke and Kirie had rambled on and on about all the credit sticks we could steal while those easy marks were ogling the Pets on sale that night. That night when I saw Iason down below…I stumbled again, my legs giving out beneath me, regretting the stout I had drunk before. That “good stuff” that Guy had ordered was making my head swim. Katze put his hands around my waist and held me up.“Are you going to be sick?” he asked.“Nah.” I shook my head and laughed. The lights up ahead, the deep, dark night sky up above, the sight and sound of the crowd milling about, it all blended together in my head. I took a deep breath and told myself, “This is all a dream. In this dream, Guy won’t kill Iason. In this dream, everything will be alright.” I was wasted out of my mind and glad for it.Slowly but surely, Katze led me from the alleyway to the main boulevard. We walked several blocks from there, weaving through the press of bodies, voices chattering in languages I didn’t understand ringing in my ears, the smell of food wafting through the air when a restaurant door opened as we passed by. It took me back to earlier days, when me and my Bison boys would celebrate with cheap stout at the garbage dump after a night of stealing, a fire lit in a trash bin to warm our bodies. We couldn’t go into those restaurants in Midas, we couldn’t understand the tongue of foreigners enjoying what we had no access to, but we could steal their wallets and have a piece of something denied to us by those who stood at the top. Things were so simple then, so pure and beautiful, if only I had known it.My mind was still running in circles when I saw red red red filling my field of vision. Katze was holding me by the hand and pulling me towards a six-story building decorated with red twinkling lights. Two huge security droids guarded the entrance. Katze whipped out a token and the guards let us pass through the doorway. We were in a brothel, the most exclusive brothel in Midas, not at all like the shithole I took Iason to that first time we met. This brothel was no seedy “love hotel.” Kirie had bragged about servicing frustrated johns who couldn’t afford to have a mere look at any of the girls or boys or anything in between on offer here. But that was Kirie. He was probably lying.“Why are you taking me here?” I asked.“Do you remember what I told you before?” Katze replied. “Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut?”“Yeah, yeah, I remember.”Katze squeezed my hand hard. “Remember: eyes open, mouth shut.”Right inside the doorway was a long, broad staircase. We walked up the staircase and down another hallway, all the way to the last room. Katze knocked on the door. In a few seconds, a girl’s voice called out softly, “Come in.”The room was large but plainly decorated. There was a bed, a sofa, a table and chairs. A girl with lilac hair sat at the table eating a meal, her back to us. Katze sat down next to her, urging me to sit at the other empty chair, the one opposite her, so I did. When I looked at her face, I recognized her immediately.“Mimea?”She looked back at me, still chewing her food, then smiled and put her fork down. “It’s you.” She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “Your Master let you live, too? That’s good. I guess we’re both lucky.”I don’t know why, but I felt so guilty. “What’re you doing here?”“What am I doing here?” Mimea laughed, but it didn’t sound like she was happy. “What do you think?”“I don’t know what to think.” I looked at Katze and asked, “What am I supposed to think?” I looked back at Mimea. Her face…I remembered her face from back then, her bright emerald eyes sparkling like jewels, her red lips like a bow, her round cheeks blushed pink, she was so beautiful. She was still beautiful, if not for the darks bags beneath her eyes, her sunken cheeks, her mouth pulled in an upside down smile.“Don’t ask him,” Mimea said, “ask yourself.” She rubbed her belly and it was then that I noticed how pregnant she was. “You’re alive aren’t you? If you’re alive, then you can have purpose. When you’re dead, there’s nothing at all.”Right then, there was a knock at the door. I almost jumped out of my seat, but Katze patted the table, as if to tell me, “Calm down.”A skinny boy entered the room pushing a cart holding plates of food. I couldn’t believe it. It was Daryl. He didn’t look a day older than…“D-Daryl…” I’m pretty sure my jaw was hanging open. When he put a plate of sandwiches in front of me, I jumped up and hugged him, crying, “I’m sorry…I wanted to say goodbye to you, but that shithead didn’t even give me a chance. He just…he dumped me back in Ceres and I never got a chance to say goodbye.” It was Katze who pulled me off of Daryl and made me sit back down.“Get a hold of yourself,” Katze told me. Daryl poured me a cup of black coffee and Katze ordered, “Drink it. If you have anything to say to him, say it now.”I looked at Mimea, and then at Daryl. “You still got toothpicks for arms,” I said to Daryl. He blinked at me, expressionless. “Do you still suck at playing cards?”“I don’t play cards here,” Daryl said.He looked like Daryl, just like him. “What’s your name?” I asked.“My name is Daryl,” he replied.He said his name was Daryl. Was he? I looked down at the plate of sandwiches in front of me and lifted a slice of the bread. They were egg sandwiches. The Daryl I knew before would never give me egg sandwiches. The Daryl I knew before would always make me a roast beef sandwich, mustard on one side, mayonnaise on the other. I stuffed a slice of the egg sandwich in my mouth and chewed. It tasted like sadness. It tasted like regret. I wanted to vomit.He watched me put another slice of the sandwich in my mouth and then turned and pushed the cart out of the room, closing the door behind him. If that was Daryl, then I wasn’t Riki.Mimea interrupted my thoughts, telling me, “This will be my fourth litter. You see, I’m worth a lot. My babies sell for top price. Even if my Master doesn’t want me anymore, someone else will want my babies. I’m not worthless.”She was always a chatty one.And I never said you were worthless.But I had made her worthless when I fucked her. If I hadn’t fucked her, then her Master Raoul Am wouldn’t have sent her to this brothel to be used as a baby-making machine.“I want to go now,” I said to Katze. “Guy…I’m worried about Guy.” My throat constricted and for a moment I thought I really might throw up. I had to get out of there before Mimea realized what an asshole I was. I didn’t want to hear her tell me to fuck off and die for ruining her life. I had to get out of there before Daryl did another thing that proved he had been lobotomized or whatever. I was sure it had to do with me. Was it because I had escaped that time? Was this his punishment? When I saw Kirie that last time, he was completely insane. “Guy…what are they going to do with Guy?” My head was a mess, my thoughts jumping here and there and back again. What the fuck was in that stout I had drunk earlier?The next thing I remembered, I was lying in my bed and Katze was pulling a blanket up around my shoulders. “Where’s Guy?” I mumbled. I wanted to get up but I couldn’t make my limbs cooperate. He lifted my head and put a straw to my mouth.“Take a sip,” Katze told me.The water was cold going down my throat; in another moment, I felt my body relax. I lay back down and stared at the ceiling. “Was that really Iason?” I asked.I could feel Katze shift on the bed. He was sitting right beside me and it made me wonder if this is what it is like to have a mother, or a father, or a brother. Katze was the closest thing I had to family besides Guy, besides my lost Bison boys. Katze cleared his throat, but said nothing.So I repeated, “Was that really Iason?”A second went by, or maybe it was an hour, I can’t say for sure, but when Katze finally spoke, I listened carefully. “Yes,” he said, “that was Iason, but he doesn’t remember you. It was the price he paid for your life.” Katze reached over and clutched my hand under the sheets, squeezed it a few times before continuing. “He exchanged his memories for…for you to go back to your old life with Guy. You see, your Master wanted you to be happy. If he stayed with you, both of you would be punished. You would be exterminated. He would be mind wiped. Either way, he wouldn’t remember you. This way, you get to live. It’s what he wanted.”The Iason I saw at the auction house…he didn’t remember me. I knew it in the deepest part of my gut. The way he looked at me…he didn’t remember me at all. I had never felt so lost. I had never felt so free, too, in the worst way. “And Mimea? Is she really just a whore at that brothel, nothing more than a baby-making machine?”Katze made a disgruntled noise in his throat. “Didn’t you hear anything she said? Idiot. Without life, there’s nothing, right? She’s still here, you’re still here, I’m still here. Be grateful!” He took out a cigarette and lit up, puffing angrily.“Daryl…” I mumbled, “…he didn’t seem right.”“What’s right? What’s wrong?” Katze snapped back. “He still has a job. Quit complaining. Here, take a hit.”Katze put the cigarette to my lips. As soon as the sweet taste landed on my tongue, I knew I’d only have a few seconds before I was sent to oblivion. “Guy…”“Don’t worry,” I heard Katze say, “I’ll make sure he gets home in one piece.”
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It wasn’t my idea, but a Master’s order is just that—an order—and I wasn’t about to disobey him even though he was speaking out of a mongrel’s mouth. It would have been too jarring but for the fact that I had been there when it all went down, and then afterwards when the pieces needed to be put back together.Do this. Do that.Guy’s body was sitting on the sofa in my office, his lips moving as he rattled off a long to-do list for me. His voice was nothing like Iason’s, but the cool commanding tone let me know who was really speaking. I recorded the session so no details would be missed. After all the things that had transpired recently, I didn’t trust my memory, not when I was chain-smoking like crazy just to keep from going off the deep end. The last time I had spoken with Iason was when I found him on the bridge at Dana Bahn, his legs bleeding a strange colored ‘blood’ from the knees downward, right before I decapitated him. That alone was enough to make me lose my own mind. I couldn’t believe what I had done! I had lopped off my Master’s head, set it on my lap and driven like a madman to Herbay, to Raoul Am’s lab. When I handed that very same head to Raoul, it felt like my own heart was being ripped straight out of my chest, a heart that weighed a ton or more with grief.Lord Am kept both Guy and Riki under sedation in his lab for over a month before releasing them to my care. During that month, Iason’s memories were transferred to Guy’s mind.“Think of it as seeding a field,” Raoul explained to me.I hadn’t asked him for an explanation—I just wanted to get in and get out—but that was how Lord Am was. He could be chatty at the most inopportune moments.“In my previous experiments,” Lord Am said as I stood between the beds holding the two unconscious mongrels, “I attempted to transplant what I shall call full-grown trees. The shock was too great and the trees died. This time I programmed the nanobots to integrate slowly. Patience is required for germination, rooting, budding. However—and this I believe is key—I now have the tremendous benefit of using original source material.” Raoul raised a gloved finger in the air at this point and stopped pacing about the lab, turning to look at me for the first time since I arrived. “It is the difference between an heirloom tomato and a bio-engineered one; the former is sweet and the latter is flavorless.”I thought back to my early upbringing in Guardian, when those of us being trained to be Furniture had access to the greenhouse gardens. “So…Lord Mink’s memories are sweet heirloom tomatoes growing in the soil of Guy’s brain,” I muttered, miserable at the thought of my Master living the rest of his life as a fruit inside a mongrel’s skull.“Fool,” Lord Am scowled, “do you not comprehend even the simplest analogy?” With a shake of his head and loud sigh, he continued talking animatedly about the various parts of the brain and the challenges posed by employing chemical stimulants. “Finding the right balance, ah, that is the crux of the matter. If only—”“Where is it?” I cut him off rudely. Guy and Riki were lying on beds, their induced comas soon to end, and I was eager to settle both of them in Riki’s old apartment in Ceres before they regained consciousness. With Raoul rambling on and on—Iason had told me about Raoul’s penchant for verbosity when it came to scientific subject matter and he wasn’t kidding!—there was one thing I wanted confirmation on and only Raoul could provide it. “My Master’s brain, where is it now?”Rather than reprimand me for interrupting him, Raoul’s eyes lit up, his expression one of almost human joy, it appeared so genuine. “Why, in his new body of course! Where else would it be? A Blondie’s brain can only reside in a Blondie’s body. And all Blondies belong to Jupiter. Iason Mink is truly himself once more.”Lord Am didn’t need to explain further for I understood exactly what he meant. The Iason Mink I had known before he met Riki was already ‘reborn’ into this world, a new body crafted by Jupiter, his brain completely mind-wiped. No wonder Raoul was so pleased. Order had been restored. I knew I should have been happy, too. Hadn’t I wanted order to be restored to my Master’s life? No more conflicts with his fellow Elites, no more criticism or threats, no more obsessing and heartache, as much as an android can obsess or feel heartache. All of that gone.“You needn’t be concerned about losing your position,” Raoul assured me. Was I frowning? “Iason Mink is still your Master. You are still his liaison in the Black Market. Hasn’t he contacted you?”“N-no, I have yet to hear from him.”“Well, it’s understandable. Lord Mink has been in closed session with Jupiter these past days. When I see him, I’ll let him know you are awaiting instructions.”It was the ‘former’ or, rather, ‘heirloom’ Iason who contacted me first by way of barging into my office and shouting, “I’m gonna kill that motherfucker Raoul!”I didn’t have time to choke on my cigarette when Guy’s furious demeanor suddenly changed and he said calmly, “Pay no mind to him, Katze, I’m still having trouble controlling this mongrel.”Guy strode confidently to the sofa and sat down, his back straight as an arrow, his expression haughty and just like…“Master!” I stood up from my desk and bowed to him. It was really him. Whatever Lord Am had done in his lab had worked. The transfer of my Master’s consciousness had worked.“That Raoul,” Guy grumbled, “I want a word with him as soon as possible.”“I…” The truth was, ever since I had brought Riki and Guy back to Ceres, neither Raoul Am nor the reborn Iason Mink had contacted me. I had gone to my office each day and carried on as if nothing had happened. “I don’t know if…that is, I haven’t met with…“Just spit it out,” Guy told me.Really, truly, he looked like Guy, but I knew he was my Master. “I have a feeling that…Lord Am is no longer…”“No longer what?!” snapped Guy.I sat back down in my chair behind my desk, as if my desk could protect me from my Master’s wrath. “I think Lord Am may have moved on.”Guy blinked several times, as if he were thinking deeply. “Ah. I see.” He stood up and paced about the narrow confines of my office. After some time, he muttered under his breath, “Well, then, it’s good I planned ahead. I just need a word with him, yes, just a brief word to clarify things. There are no dead ends, merely other paths, other solutions…other beginnings.” Guy stopped in front of my desk, a smile on his face. “This is what I want you to do.”I did it all. I contacted Lord Am, telling him that Iason—the ‘heirloom tomato’ Iason—wanted to meet with him at the upcoming Pet auction. Not long after that, the reborn Iason contacted me in return. It was shocking and comforting at the same time to see his beautiful face on the monitor, to hear his aloof voice speaking to me like before. I struggled to reply to him—my throat was so constricted with emotions I had tried so hard to bury—but in the end I was able to give my report and propose what I was supposed to according to Iason’s plan.“I have recruited two mongrels,” I told the ‘new’ Iason. “They will be willing to go on whatever suicide mission you require. I will bring them to the Pet auction. You can inspect them then and give me your final answer.”My ‘new’ Master was truly perfect in every way, but my heart still belonged to the one I served from the start, even if he looked like a mongrel. The Iason Mink I served from the start was someone I couldn’t fathom. Why did he want me to bring Riki to the brothel to meet with Raoul Am’s former Pet Mimea? Why did he want me to have Riki meet with the clone of Daryl? It wasn’t until I dropped Riki off back in Ceres that I realized that my original Master wanted Riki to know that he, that Raoul Am, too, were not cruel, unfeeling Masters. They cared for their Pets, no matter the sins committed, no matter the wayward tendencies, they cared for them, loved them in their own twisted ways, wanted them to live.As much as I wanted to tell Riki the entire truth, I held back. My Master had a plan and I would not ruin it. He loved Riki. Iason Mink loved Riki in the very same way I had always wanted for myself. To have true love for a finite period is better than an infinite lie. To be human is better than anything else.
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I had told Jupiter before that I was willing to risk everything—my status, my wealth, even my life—to prove that I was no longer willing to operate within the confines of her rules. I would live as I wished or be extinguished by her, so be it.“You would forsake your Maker for a mongrel Pet?” she had asked.Her hologram hovered above me, glowing with a cool, ethereal light in the otherwise darkened room. I wondered if her human designers had chosen this vaguely anthropomorphic form as a nod to their own ancient gods. To me, she was neither threatening nor awe-inspiring in appearance. She was merely Jupiter, the one who had made me.“I believe I have outgrown you,” I replied. The wine in my glass tasted of berries and oak; I downed the last of it and stood up to leave. “There are some things I cannot forget, will not forget. Take what is yours, but allow me to keep what belongs to me.” If I never saw Jupiter again, I would not miss her. Indeed, I had outgrown my Maker. I was no longer a child in need of a mother.I had fallen in love. I wanted to be free to choose my own future.To see Riki looking back at me without hatred or scorn in his eyes…it had its own unique charm. I had grown so accustomed to his fiery temperament—what made him irresistibly attractive in the first place—that this other side of his personality came as a surprise. He had never revealed this aspect of himself in Eos Tower. If I were to think carefully, then perhaps his hard shell softened for a fleeting moment at the apartment in Apathia, when he asked me if “I had taken shit” because of him. It was the first time he had ever shown any concern for my welfare. Of course, he had been willing to ‘die’ with me at Dana Bahn, but even then he was hiding his true feelings behind suicidal arrogance. In front of Guy, though, in front of that stupid pairing partner he was completely unguarded in a way he had never been with me. It irked me to no end that he could be honest with him but never with me.Until now. He was honest with me now. As long as he thought I was Guy, he would open himself up to me without coercion, without threats or punishment. This left me in quite a conundrum. The power I exerted over Riki—watching him kneel and submit to me, hearing him beg and cry to be set free—was thrilling and something I had not experienced with any other Pet before him, but it was false in its own way, this power to hold his life in my hand. An insect is easily crushed by a human, and a human is crushed as easily by an Elite. That’s hardly an accomplishment. If it were not for the Pet ring…Guy needed no Pet ring to bind Riki to him. It was a hard truth to swallow, but I couldn’t deny the fact after seeing it for myself. Yes, Riki was willing to die with me, but what mattered first and foremost to him was that Guy live. Guy had to live. As long as Guy lived, Riki would be content; he could accept anything, even death for himself, even life without me, his Master, as long as Guy lived.So, the moment Katze pulled Riki out of the private suite and the door shut behind them, as if on cue, Raoul turned to Iason—my newly reincarnated self—and queried, “What do you think about your new Pet? Did I design it to your liking?”The new ‘me’ leaned back in the plush chair, then shrugged nonchalantly. “Dark hair, dark eyes…rather odd.”“Indeed,” Raoul agreed, “but do those attributes please you?”Iason sighed, as if bored to death. “I can’t say that they do. No matter. As long as it breeds efficiently, I’ll be satisfied. Jupiter will be satisfied as well.”They bantered a while longer, completely ignoring my presence in the row of seats behind them. It was bizarre to watch myself—a newer, shinier version of myself—through the eyes of a human, a mongrel, a thoroughly obnoxious one at that and find myself agreeing with him. Oh, I was beautiful, no doubt about that: beautiful, regal, imposing, yes, I was all of those things. I was wealthy and powerful and beloved of Jupiter, I was standing on top of the heap and it all seemed like an empty, futile charade, a mockery of the universe. Sitting in other private suites were other androids bidding on Pets. Aside from access to better resources and the ability to do as we pleased with those beneath us, we were slaves all the same, slaves to Jupiter, slaves to our lack of humanity. Perhaps our infinite lifespan was our punishment, to exist in such a meaningless way until Jupiter saw fit to end it. It was something of an epiphany to me, one I was unlikely to have were it not for Guy’s incessant ranting about the unfairness of it all and how he was going to murder me all over again.Fortunately, I had told Katze ahead of time to keep Guy sober that night. I needed to be the one in control. With Riki moping about the apartment since the Dana Bahn incident, determined to sleep his life away, I managed to meet with Katze several times in Midas. Only he and Raoul knew the truth; even I was in the dark about some things, and I needed Raoul to answer my questions. The Pet auction offered the best opportunity for me to meet with Raoul without drawing too much suspicion, and for Riki to see that Iason Mink was still very much alive, and clueless. As I listened to Raoul and Iason talking, my original intention to have Raoul find me a more suitable host body faded with the realization that I might already be where I needed to be.I thought to myself, “Since Plan A is a bust, I’ll proceed to Plan B.”Raoul was at a complete loss when I told him not to delete Guy’s memories. Iason, the new version, had just left the private suite to inspect his latest Pet acquisition, giving me my first opportunity to speak directly with Raoul.“Are you insane?” Raoul screamed. He clutched the sides of his head and sat himself back down in the chair, putting his head between his knees.“You know you can’t hyperventilate,” I reminded him. I patted him on the back and sat next to him. “Listen, I was screaming too when I realized how badly you had fucked up.”Raoul straightened up in an instant, his eyes wide with horror. “Holy Jupiter, you’re even talking like that, that, that mixed breed mutt! And,” he poked me in the chest, “I purposely left Guy’s consciousness intact as a safety measure because the other test subjects all went berserk if I mind wiped them first. This time I was able to transfer your nanobots directly into his brain, rather than use copied memory files culled from the databank. That should give you enough control over his consciousness. How long has it been? Three months? By now, his consciousness should be completely subsumed. Your nanobots should have overwritten them. If Guy is still rattling around somewhere in that thick skull, then I will conduct a thorough mind wipe. Your memories have already taken root. Deleting Guy’s memories now shouldn’t impact yours.”“But I would like to maintain access to him.”“Whatever for?” Raoul cried.“He’s…helpful at times,” I admitted.“A filthy mongrel like that?”It had been a while since I had seen my dear brother. Though I wanted to wring his neck, his brilliant emerald eyes shone like diamonds in the dim light of the private suite. I leaned in close and cupped his face in my right hand. “Raoul,” I whispered, “you put me in this body, you put me in this degenerate mind.” His scent was almost palpable as I breathed in, his cheek against my nose. I closed my eyes and saw it: the entirety of my life in Eos Tower, from the moment I gained consciousness…from the moment I first saw Raoul. He smelled like perfection, my brother Raoul smelled like perfection. It was his scent that carried me back to my earliest memories. He was my home in so many ways, what I knew best, but it was time to leave it all behind me. “You were always perfect,” I told him, “you always know the way to Jupiter’s heart. Put in a good word for me. Whatever anyone else says, you were her favorite, not me. Let this filthy mongrel kiss you goodbye.”I kissed him. I kissed Raoul and he let me. He didn’t even push me away. I was in Guy’s body and yet he let me kiss him. We were on the floor between the seats. Over the speaker I could hear the auctioneer listing the attributes of the next Pet for sale. Raoul’s body was big and firm under me, but he acquiesced willingly. It wasn’t right to have a mongrel dominate a Blondie, but here we were turning the world upside down.“Is this what it’s like?” Raoul rasped, his voice thick in his throat as I bit his lower lip, sucked on it like I had seen and felt Guy do with Riki. “Is this what it’s like to be with a mongrel?”“Do you really want to know?” I asked. Raoul was panting beneath me, squirming and grinding his hips into mine. “Then don’t forget me. Don’t forget to bring me back home.”
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Guy didn’t come home the night of the Pet auction, the night when I saw Iason, and Mimea, and Daryl, too. None of them had been as they had been in the past. None of them had been as I remembered them, especially Iason, who didn’t remember me at all.He doesn’t remember me.What Katze told me echoed in my head over and over again the next day when I woke up. My throat was dry but my body didn’t hurt. I was lying in my bed. Slowly, slowly I recalled what had happened. I swallowed, as if I could swallow it all down and not regret everything. Iason was alive, right? Wasn’t that the most important thing? He was alive, and even if he didn’t remember me, well, that was a good thing, too. Yeah. That was the best thing ever. It meant I was free. I was finally free. He could go on being the golden god living in the sky and I could go back to being the lowly mongrel groveling in the dirt.No. That wasn’t quite right. I could go back to my life with Guy before I came across that Blondie. There would be no love hotel, no abduction, no chains and beatings and, fuck it all, no Mimea and Daryl, no being told to leave—just go, go back to the slums you piece of trash—none of that, no rejection, no heartache, no regret. It would be me and Guy and no betrayals. I wouldn’t be a lying cheater, disloyal in heart and soul. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do those things.My mind wouldn’t stop turning as I lay in bed. It reminded me of those nights in Ceres when the rain seemed like it would never stop. Amidst the damp air, the stench of the streets would rise up and get in your nostrils. It didn’t matter if you were ten stories up, you could smell the odor of garbage, you couldn’t get away from it. Just like that, I kept thinking about Iason, his brilliant blue eyes so dead when he looked at me that night. I kept thinking about Mimea and the miserable life she was living as a baby machine, and yet she was content. How? Why? Just because she was still alive rather than dead? And what about Daryl? He looked like Daryl, just like Iason looked like Iason. But I didn’t know them, not them, not them.I must have fallen asleep again, because it was Guy who woke me up. He was slapping my face when I came to, still on my bed in my apartment. “What time is it?” I muttered. There was a bitter taste in my mouth, as if I had eaten something rotten. Gross, this was morning breath times ten. I rolled out of bed and made my way into the bathroom. The face in the mirror was not pleasing: I had what looked like three days’ worth of stubble. How old was I now? Twenty? Twenty-one? I couldn’t even remember, not that it mattered. Anyone over eighteen in Ceres was considered ancient, in Eos Tower you were way beyond your expiration date. The idea made me chuckle as I showered and shaved. Who would’ve thought I’d still be alive and kicking at my ripe old age? Despite all the shit I had gone through, I was still here, and I had Guy, too. I found him in the kitchen cooking breakfast as I toweled off my wet hair; he was making fried eggs on toast and, from the smell of it, thick strips of bacon, the real stuff, not the fake crap that was doled out in the slums.Katze had told me that he would make sure Guy got home safe, so I wasn’t surprised he was back and had somehow gotten hold of contraband goods. What did surprise me was that he was whole again, like completely whole.“You…you got a new left arm?” I stared in shock. We had talked about him getting a replacement but I didn’t think he’d actually go ahead and do it.Guy turned from the stove to face me and grinned, smug and proud of himself. “Damn right. This motherfucker’s going places.”Over breakfast, Guy clued me in to what had transpired while I was catching up with Mimea and Daryl that night. “After you and Katze took off, I made a deal with those assholes: fix what you broke or I’ll blow up Eos Tower."“Huh?” My mouth was hanging open in disbelief. Guy had always been more than capable of fighting off other mongrels, but Iason Mink and Raoul Am were Blondies! There was no way Guy could have threatened both of them and come out unscathed.“Listen, I blew up Dana Bahn, didn’t I? I’m a freaking legend.”Well, that was true. After that incident, Guy had acquired unquestioned respect from every mongrel in the slums because he had taken down a Blondie, and not just any Blondie, but Iason Mink. Of course, I now knew that Iason Mink was still walking about in one piece, but news was slow to seep into Ceres.“I told those scumbags I’d do it again. I had all the explosives in place already.”“No way!” I shouted. Guy had made a habit of disappearing without notice, but I had never imagined he would be sneaking around Eos Tower. That place had security up the ass; you had better luck getting out than getting in without clearance. “You actually rigged the place?”Guy laughed like a madman. “Of course not! But what do they know? Do you think they’d take that risk? Besides, we have nothing to lose. They’re the ones with everything to lose.”“But…” Really, I couldn’t believe that Guy had it in him to be so sure of coming out on top. He had always been willing to let me lead in Bison, to let me decide when to fight, how to fight. This cocky arrogance was something new. “You know they could have killed you right there.”“Nah. I had a knock-off detonator in my hand. You should have seen their faces. They caved right away. It was win-win. What’s it to them to fix what they broke in the first place? All they really care about is living their stupid Blondie existence.” Guy held up his new left arm and flexed the bicep. “What d’ya think? It’s the latest bionic model. I could crush their titanium skulls with this thing. That Raoul Am has a face I want to punch, but he’s a pretty good surgeon.”“Don’t tell me he gave you that new arm just because you were being such a pest.” If I had known that nagging and bullshitting were effective tactics against Blondie dominance, it would have solved all my problems with Iason!“Yeah, but I had to give him that gold credit stick in trade. Hope you don’t mind. The thing is, Riki, I can’t do the things I wanna do with you with just one arm, ya know what I mean?”Okay. I admit I was having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this, especially since Guy had nearly lost his life over getting an arm replacement. We were having sex just fine even without the arm. It’s not like I was complaining. “So, you’re okay? What about the…I dunno…stitches…”“No stitches.” Guy took off his shirt and showed me his bare torso. There was only the palest hint of scar tissue at his left shoulder to indicate where the new limb was attached. “This surgery took all of fifteen minutes. It took longer to get to and from the lab in Herbay. Those android freaks are something else. You should see what they have access to. The way we live in Ceres, shit, you have no idea how the other half lives.”I didn’t have the heart to tell Guy, “Yeah, I do know. I saw it for myself, I even lived it for myself.” All I could do was shake my head and wonder why my world kept turning upside down. And had Guy lost his mind or what? First he blew up Dana Bahn and now he had the balls to do it again on their own home turf? Even if it was just an empty threat, he was asking for a death sentence from those Blondies. What had gotten into him?Later that week, we both reported to Katze in his office. Since the new Iason had agreed to hire us, it was up to Katze to give us our assignments.“Riki, you’re back in Warehouse C,” Katze told me. “Do you remember the protocol?”“Of course I do,” I snorted. “I’m not brain dead. Any idiot can move crates.”Katze sighed his usual What-did-I-do-to-deserve-this? sigh before telling Guy, “You report to Docking Bay 7B for flight training. Hiro will be your instructor.”It took me a moment to realize what was happening. “Wait a freaking minute!” I protested. “How come Guy gets to go on deliveries? I used to sit side-pilot with Alec. Shouldn’t I get to—”“It’s Lord Mink’s order,” Katze said. “If you would like to beg him to change his mind, feel free.”Guy broke out laughing, as if he and Katze were sharing some secret joke that I wasn’t privy to. What the ever living fuck? Since when had Guy and Katze gotten all chummy?“This is unfair,” I declared. “And Lord Mink can go fuck himself!”I spent the next few weeks just doing my job, knowing and resenting that Guy was being given more freedom than I was. This new Iason Mink…did he hate me even if he didn’t remember me? Was there a tiny part of him that still remained and wanted to punish me? Guy came home after every delivery full of stories of what he did and where he went while I was trapped moving crates from one cargo bay to another.“Holy shit,” Guy enthused over a late night dinner of fake beef burgers, “we almost ran into a fucking meteorite on our way to blah blah blah. Hiro let me steer the ship and, fuck me top to bottom, I killed it!”I knew he was exaggerating. In all the time I had sat beside Alec when he piloted the ship, we had never come across any ‘meteorite.’ The Black Market wouldn’t be profitable if their cargo ships ran into meteorites. “That’s good,” I told Guy, “as long as you come back safe, I don’t give a fuck."The truth was, I didn’t even know Guy anymore. He wasn’t like the boy who kept me warm in Guardian. No. He was so different, so confident and willing to speak his mind. He didn’t seem to see me as who I was before, and in so many ways, I couldn’t remember who I was before. Maybe what I remembered was all a lie. And maybe that was what I wanted, to forget my past life.By chance, I saw him. I saw Iason. I wasn’t trying to run into him, but I was in Flare on a day off from work. Guy was off-planet on a delivery. He was already in the pilot’s chair, in charge and calling the shots. Meanwhile, I had a credit stick fully loaded up and I was hunting around for a brand new aero bike for Guy. He would be turning twenty-five in a few days and I wanted to surprise him. The day before, I had asked Katze for the cash I had left with him all those years ago, the cash I had stuffed inside a take-out bag from a burger joint, all the money I had earned when I first worked for him.“Guy’s got a birthday coming up,” I told Katze. “I wanna buy him a bike. A new one.”And Katze tossed me a credit stick when he handed over the paper bag. “Go to the showroom here.” He slid me a business card. “Tell him I sent you. He’ll give you a good price.”I picked up the credit stick and asked, “Will I need this, too?”“Oh, yeah,” Katze assured me, “prices have gone up.”Yeah, it was sticker shock for sure. Prices had gone so far up I couldn’t afford it even with the credit stick Katze gave me.“I can give you this model instead,” the man told me. His name on the business card that Katze gave me earlier was unpronounceable. “But if you are looking for something with power and speed, then I doubt you will be satisfied. Perhaps you should—”“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll find something else.” This felt like a wild goose chase, like a treasure hunt with no treasure. Dejected, I wandered aimlessly up and down the streets, not even bothering to look at the store fronts with their fancy displays. Somehow, I found myself in Apathia, right in front of the building in which Iason kept me. I looked up and up, all the way to the floor at the top.That’s where I lived.It wasn’t as high up as the penthouse apartment in Eos Tower, but it was almost up in the clouds. I had been so high in the sky.Guy, no matter how high you fly now, you won’t know how it really felt.I closed my eyes and thought of him, of Iason. After Dana Bahn, I didn’t dare speak his name, especially in front of Guy. I didn’t dare tell Guy how much I missed my horrible Master. If I could go back, if I could tell Iason how sorry I was, could I even say it? And then I saw him. I saw Iason, the new Iason, the one who didn’t remember me. He was leading a Pet by a chain. I recognized this Pet right away. It was the one he had bid on and acquired the night of the Pet auction, the one that looked like a dark-haired, dark-eyed Mimea, and he was leading her into the building. Was he taking her to the same apartment, the one where he kept me, fucked me, made me kiss his boots while my Bison boys looked on at my shameful obeisance? If so, then I was truly a fool to yearn for him. Was the old Iason Mink gone forever? He walked right by me and didn’t even turn his head.
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It became yet another addiction. I had control over Guy’s consciousness now and I couldn’t resist the urge to take it as far as I could go. Part of it was merely the satisfaction of knowing that I had that detestable mongrel in the palm of my hands. I could twist and turn him as I pleased and he was helpless, utterly helpless. Guy was my mouthpiece. I could make him say and do what I wanted. The other part, though, the reason I kept at it was the enjoyment I derived from seeing Riki’s honest reactions. His eyes would light up or darken depending on his moods, all of it unclouded and pure.Show me yourself. Show me what you really think, what you really feel. Show me what you want and need so I can give it to you.To hide behind the face of a mongrel was something a Blondie would never do. A Blondie would never sink so low, but I knew better. The life I lived high in the sky was all an illusion, one that Jupiter fed us to keep her sons satisfied and loyal. If it hadn’t been for that chance encounter with Riki, I would still believe in my Maker’s illusion. I would still be living an utter lie. Now, now I wanted to make my own path, my own future, and I wanted that future with Riki.Did Riki truly believe the lies I told? Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. What I knew for a certainty was that Riki felt at ease with Guy, even if Guy puzzled him, disappointed him, angered him. Despite all that, he was always willing to give Guy the benefit of the doubt, something he wouldn’t give to Iason Mink. No. After living in Guy’s mind and body, I knew that Riki trusted Guy in a way that he never trusted me. When Guy touched him, Riki felt no fear, no resentment. He felt…a familiarity…a certain resignation and comfort that I could not understand. Was this something unique to humans? Was a pairing partner more beloved than a Master?There were times when I hid in the shadows and merely observed. I would watch, silent and still, as Guy went about doing whatever idiotic things he normally did with Riki. I watched him hold the umbrella over Riki on a rainy day, a bag of groceries tucked in his other arm because he now had two arms thanks to my brother Raoul. That arm cost more than a mongrel could ever afford, but Guy was no ordinary mongrel anymore. He was me. He was Iason Mink, the real Iason Mink.That rainy day, we walked home and ran across a pair of mongrels who stopped and groveled in front of us. Riki turned to me, to Guy that is, and rolled his eyes.“Aren’t ya gonna say something to your fanboys?” Riki smirked.I sat further back in the far corner of Guy’s mind. Guy spat on the ground and grunted, “Fuck off, assholes.”The two mongrels scampered off in gratitude. Going up against Iason Mink at Dana Bahn had earned Guy the respect of every mongrel in Ceres. How ridiculous! And yet, it all made sense. I was a god, wasn’t I? I was Iason Mink! Even I would kiss my own ass! Who wouldn’t? Who shouldn’t? And yet, it was all a lie. My power, my wealth, my status, it was all a lie. Everything I believed was a lie. My control over Riki was a lie, a lie made believable because he wore my Pet ring. Without it, he was Guy’s pairing partner, not Iason Mink’s Pet. Without it, he was human, not an engineered toy.Riki was human. He had pride. He had feelings. He had desires and needs. He wanted love. And Guy gave it to him, over and over, freely and in ways I never understood until I lived in his skin. I wasn’t human. I was Jupiter’s creation, something she meant to be better than human, only for me to realize that I didn’t want to be anything but human, one capable of experiencing human sensations, human thoughts, human weaknesses. At Dana Bahn, as the flames engulfed us, I felt nothing, not the slightest hint of heat, but inside Guy’s mortal body, I could feel every single twinge of pain, every single jolt of pleasure, I felt hunger and cold and exhaustion, everything Jupiter wanted her own sons to be free from, I felt it all and for the first time, I knew what it was to be truly alive. This finite and fragile human existence, one lived in the filth of decay, was more glorious than my endless years as a Blondie Master.I wanted to know him truly, I wanted to feel the things that Guy felt when he kissed Riki and Riki kissed him back, welcomed him between his legs and gripped him so tightly, so willingly. There was no Pet ring between them, no Pet ring linking Master and Pet. There was only the bond of two lovers who had known each other from the beginning, before Iason Mink. I wanted to be there, I wanted to be the one Riki knew from the start. I wanted to be his first and only love. I wanted to make everything begin again, even if it were a lie. I had told Jupiter my own share of lies, but when Riki easily accepted all the lies I told him—there wasn’t a single thing truthful about what I told him after Raoul replaced the arm that I had mangled on Guy’s body—I knew that my Plan B just might work. If he could forgive and forget, and if I could give him true freedom, then maybe, just maybe we could start all over again.***“There’s no turning back from this,” Katze mumbled.I had to strain my ears to hear him over the rumble of the engines as they powered down in the docking bay. That’s the downside of being stuck in a human body; the senses are poor compared to an Elite’s. I had just completed another off-planet ‘delivery’ as my alter ego Guy and my ex-Furniture was waiting at the bottom of the staircase when I descended from the cargo jet. “What are you worried about?” I said. “You won’t lose your job.”“I’m not worried about my job,” Katze replied.He walked beside me as I headed to the warehouse, his face pulled into a frown. Up ahead was a human manager directing several loading droids, so I slowed my pace and let Katze move ahead of me. Even if Katze forgot his place, I didn’t forget who I was, or who I was pretending to be. Jupiter’s eyes were everywhere and no one was more more keen to this fact than I was. Even if my Maker wasn’t watching, I behaved as if she were. I was currently a hired hand, not a Blondie son, a mongrel no less, so it only made sense for me to walk a pace behind Katze. Not that long ago, this scenario would have been incomprehensible. It would have been impossible for Iason Mink to walk a step behind a mongrel, a human, an ex-Furniture, but I was no longer Iason Mink on the outside, and perhaps I wasn’t even Iason Mink on the inside. “Then what are you worried about?” I asked.Katze waited until we were in the decontamination zone where the electromagnetic field distorted all sound frequencies before he whispered to me, “Lord Am says it is done.”I nodded and stripped off my flight suit as Katze exited out a side door. The lights darkened within the narrow confines of the hallway and then I stepped onto a conveyor belt which took me to another enclosed room. A series of lights were cast across my naked body—low level gamma and ultraviolet—to scan for dangerous bacteria and viruses that may have infiltrated the cabin of the ship during its travels, and then I was doused with a cleansing steam. It was the normal routine after every off-planet delivery and it made me smirk to think how weak humans were. I never had to be bothered with this sort of protocol when I was Iason Mink, but I was that blasted mongrel now, so here I was. I was Guy. I was human. I was just like Riki. And I would give him everything Guy never could.
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I flew solo after passing my pilot training. At first, I thought it was because I was such a whiz at it. “Best pilot you’ve ever had, eh?” I smirked.Katze just rolled his eyes at me and said, “In the Black Market, Lord Mink is your Master and he determines if…” blah blah blah.That redhead was always pontificating. And Lord Mink my ass. He wasn’t my Master. Later on, I chatted up the other pilots and found out the real deal. Normally, there would be a co-pilot in the cockpit to assist the pilot, but the cargo I delivered was considered S-Class, which meant it was either some kind of contagious bioweapon or something so combustible it could blow up if I swerved to avoid an asteroid, so, it was always just me steering the ship on these suicidal runs, well, me and that annoying shithead rattling around in my brain nagging me to death. That crazy motherfucker had me flying off-course every time.“Why do you want me to go there again?” I asked. “The itinerary says the goods have to be delivered here.” I jabbed my finger at the map of the star systems glimmering on the screen. “The Milky Way isn’t even in the adjacent galaxy!”“You’re not paid to think, idiot. Just do what I say.”“Right, I’m the idiot. If you’re such a genius, then what are you doing stuck inside my head?” I got no response, just dead silence. “Hah! Not such a smarty pants now, are ya?” Then I punched myself in the face so hard I blacked out.It was the same thing every time. I’d go on a delivery run, he’d tell me to veer off-course, I’d argue with him, then he’d make me beat the crap out of myself until I was comatose. Who knows what the hell he was up to. I’d come to when we were back on Amoï, having no recollection of how I had even gotten back to the spaceport. Katze never questioned me. I’d hand over the data stick which recorded my delivery run and he’d just nod and remind me to go straight to the decontamination chamber. The first time this happened, I was real nervous. I thought I’d be fired for going off-course—I mean, did I even deliver the goods at all?—but nothing bad transpired. I was assigned another delivery as if I didn’t break any rules or whatever. The second time, I asked Katze, “Hey, do you actually check the delivery data?”“Of course,” he said.And that was it. He didn’t accuse me of any wrongdoing. Like, what the fuck? Okay, that Katze was always smoking those Black Moon cigarettes, which meant he was probably stoned out of his mind, so maybe I was just worrying about nothing. As long as I was doing my job and not getting reprimanded, then I wouldn’t stick my nose into it anymore. Why stir the pot, right? Besides, it wasn’t my idea to make these detours to some unpopulated planet. If worse came to worse, I could always rat him out to Katze. Then he could go tell that Master of his to do something about it.I gotta admit, seeing that Blondie show up in one piece at the auction hall that night was a bit of a shocker. I had blown Dana Bahn to smithereens—I walked through the rubble myself afterwards—but if Riki made it out alive, then I guess it wasn’t too much of a stretch for that freak to get his titanium metal ass put back together again. That Lord Mink, as Katze loves calling him, was just a shell, though. His obnoxious ‘soul,’ if androids have souls, decided to squat inside my head. Talk about unfairness! And my sweet Riki was still pining for that jerk.Even though our schedules were completely different—Riki worked 9-to-5 in the warehouses; I, on the other hand, would be gone for days at a time depending on how far I had to go for a delivery—we always spent our free time together. I’d come home and find him sleeping on the sofa or maybe puttering around in the kitchen making a sandwich, stupid domestic shit that made me feel like we were back to being pairing partners again. I’d go right up to him and kiss him, hug him, bend him over the counter and fuck him nice and good. After I got that replacement arm, things were even better in the sack. With both arms, I could manhandle Riki every which way, and that bionic arm was something else. I could literally pick Riki up with it like he was light as a feather. I could hold him down, then put my fingers inside him and feel his blood pulsing as if there was nothing between us. The sensations that ran up my replacement arm drove me insane, it made me want Riki like he was the sweetest drug. I was never rough with him in the past, but that arm had me feeling so powerful, I didn’t hold back anymore. Sometimes I’d end up leaving bruises on Riki’s wrists and ankles, but he didn’t seem to mind in the least.“Is that what he used to do with you?” We were in bed, completely fucked out and brain dead and the question just slipped out of me. I could feel Riki tense up as he lay in my arms, his back pressed against my chest. “Did you like it?” I caressed his flat belly and kissed the nape of his neck, his dark hair tickled my nose. “Whatever he did with you, I can do it, too.” That finally got him turning around to face me, glaring.“What are you talking about?” he said through gritted teeth.“You know what I’m talking about.” I reached out and pushed his hair away from his face to reveal a very definite scowl. Well, I had reason to be angry, too. Two months ago, I had come back early from a delivery and saw Riki leaving our apartment, his hoodie pulled down low over his head. He was up to something sneaky, so I decided to tail him. I followed him all the way to Apathia, where he ducked into the same restaurant I sat in when I was trying to find him. Sure enough, a gold-plated aero car eventually pulled up to the high-rise luxury apartment across from the restaurant, and Lord Mink stepped out of the car and into the apartment building. After a few minutes, Riki left the restaurant and went back home, shoulders hunched, head down. I caught him a few more times doing the same thing. He’d wait at that restaurant for that Blondie to show up, and then he’d leave to go home afterwards. “Were you in love with him? Are you still in love with him?” This was a taboo subject between us. Riki never wanted to talk about it, not after Dana Bahn, but I wasn’t afraid of losing Riki to that android anymore. “You know he doesn’t even know you now.”Riki sat up and raised his fist at me. I put up both my hands. “Go ahead and punch me. If it makes you happy, I won’t stop you. But do me a favor: don’t go see him anymore.”His face crumpled. “You’ve been spying on me?”“If you want to call it that. Yeah. What of it? Did I do something wrong?”He dropped his fist and groaned. “I just needed to know if…”I sat up and rubbed his shoulder. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous, but Riki was in bed with me, not him, and that’s what mattered. “You needed to know what?”“I needed to know if he was…happy.”“Happy?” I snorted. “He’s a fucking Blondie. He’s got anything and everything he wants. Why wouldn’t he be happy?”“I know, I know, it’s stupid.” Riki flopped back down on the bed and covered his face with the pillow. “Just forget about it. I don’t wanna talk about this.”“Promise me you won’t go see him anymore.”“I won’t go see him anymore,” he mumbled beneath the pillow. “Now shut up and go to sleep.”I would have done just that, gone to sleep, only someone wouldn’t let me. Someone kept gloating about how his Pet still loved him and was loyal to his Master. Someone kept bragging about this and that until I couldn’t help it. I tapped Riki on the shoulder and asked, “Hey, babe, who’s better, me or him?”“What?” Riki muttered, more annoyed than I was.“Who’s better, me, your hot pairing partner, or that shithead Blondie creep?”Riki clobbered me with the pillow. “Are you kidding me? Go to fucking sleep!”“No, not until you tell me who’s better.”“You’re better, okay? Now leave me alone!”“How am I better?” I wasn’t taller or physically stronger, that I could admit. I wasn’t richer or more powerful. I didn’t have higher status, but who did? “Am I better looking? Better in bed? Tell me. What did he give you that was so great?” I could see Riki’s eyes gleaming in the dark. He was staring up at the ceiling. After a while, he turned to face me.“It was never about the sex,” he finally said.For some reason, I was so relieved to hear that. A man has his pride, after all, and a mongrel has pride in spades. I was ready to go to sleep at last, my ego well-stroked, but then Riki went on talking.“There was one thing that he made me realize.”“Oh? What’s that?”“To be free is the best thing in the world.”I had never thought about it that way before. Living in the slums, just staying alive was an accomplishment. Having enough to eat was a plus. Finding a pairing partner, well, that was making it big. I had Riki, I had made him mine. For me, that was enough, more than enough. All that talk about getting out of Ceres…that was just Riki being Riki back in the day. He was always lighting up the night with his charisma, his fearless, daring self. Nothing ever held him back, certainly not me. I was just happy to bask in his beauty, hold him to me like the precious thing he was. As long as I had him, I didn’t even think about anything like freedom. Why would I need that when I had him? As long as I had him, I had everything. Until he was gone.Then I had nothing. I did everything to get him back, just to realize that the enemy I had to defeat would never go away.“I’m his first love. You’ll never be able to top that.” That’s what I said whenever that Blondie worm tried to mess with my head. He was always saying shit to make me think I wasn’t good enough for Riki, but I knew I was exactly what Riki wanted, what Riki needed. I was his pairing partner, and in the slums, a pairing partner is for life. “If it weren’t for that cock ring”—no way in fuck would I call it a Pet ring—“he’d never give you the time of day.”“Have you ever made him beg to take him three or four times without even a—”“Cock ring!” I’d interrupt. Yeah. I knew that Blondie must’ve used all sorts of dirty tricks to manipulate Riki. “Us mongrels don’t need that sort of bullshit to get off. When we fall in love, we mate forever. No one ever comes between us, not you, not anyone. Riki…Riki would have never…”So, this is how it was. It was fucking tiresome. All this back and forth, it made me want to kill myself sometimes, just so I could get rid of this parasite inside my head. He was always there after Dana Bahn, always rattling around in my brain, telling me shit I didn’t want to hear, making my blood boil with all his arrogant declarations of superiority. I mean, who wants to know that the love of his life was fucking some android and asking for more? What garbage was that? So what if he had long blond hair? I could dye my hair blond, too, and grow it long but I didn’t because what the fuck!!! Riki liked my hair just fine the way it was before that motherfucker came along!I tell ya, my head hurt most days. Sometimes, late at night when I couldn’t sleep, I’d ask myself if I should have just let it all go. Was I wrong to have tracked Riki down after he disappeared the second time? Was I wrong to have abducted him? Even if Riki left me again, even if he didn’t love me anymore, didn’t want me anymore, I wanted so bad to free him from that bastard. That Blondie could make Riki do whatever he wanted with that cock ring, so I took it away. I cut it all away. I cut out my heart as sure as I cut off my beautiful Riki’s cock. I thought by doing that I could set him free at last. I mean, you should have seen the look on that Blondie’s face when he opened up the box and saw that ring sitting there, laughing back at him. Hah! Take that, motherfucker!But after what Riki told me that night—“To be free is the best thing in the world”—I realized it wasn’t that simple. That Blondie had no hold over him anymore, right? He didn’t even know Riki, the one walking around like his old snooty self, at least. And the one stuck inside my head was just a prisoner now. How funny was that? Except, Riki was still Riki, that dark-haired, dark-eyed jewel in the mud, always a little out of reach, and what he said made me feel like he was still yearning for something more. I was willing to do anything for him, even if it meant slaving for that scumbag.
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Guy was acting weirder and weirder, but I couldn’t tell if it was him or me. Maybe it was the both of us. Maybe we had both changed to the point where we might not recognize our former selves. Either way, whatever way, I let it go. What good would it do to question him, argue with him, as if it mattered? The truth was, we were living better than most mongrels, who couldn’t even dream of having jobs that earned legitimate credits. Yeah, Norris was still making a living with his partner Maxi but, irony of all ironies, the two of them were making a killing scavenging for valuable metals in the debris of Dana Bahn—along with all the other gearheads—melting parts down and repurposing them for various custom made bikes. Sid wasn’t so lucky, deep as ever in gambling debts; he made himself scarce to the point where no one knew if he was still alive. And Luke…well, the last time I heard word of him, he was pawning the clothes on his back for a hit of contraband Black Moons. A part of me wanted to reach out and save them, as if Bison still existed, but Bison was long gone, and so was I, its former leader. I was just Riki now, not Riki the Dark, and Guy was just Guy, my pairing partner, even though I barely knew him sometimes.He looked the same, sounded the same, smelled the same, but something was off about him. I’d catch him talking to himself. At first, I thought he was talking to me. I’d hear him cursing and mumbling in the middle of the night in bed, but when I’d roll over and ask him, “Are you pissed at me or something?” he’d just say, “Huh? I was dreaming.”Once, I found him in the kitchen doing the same thing—swearing and arguing with someone, only there was no one else with him—and he denied that he was talking to anyone. “It’s nothing, Riki,” he laughed. “I was just singing this song I heard from some bum on the street."Okaaay.“You’re a shit singer,” I told him. To my surprise, he grabbed me and threw me against the counter, bit my mouth until my bottom lip was bleeding. Then he licked me there, as if my blood tasted good. The look in his grey eyes froze me in place. I had seen that look before, only it wasn’t one I had seen on Guy’s face. Those eyes had been ice blue, not grey, and the face had been Iason’s.You see what I mean? Was it Guy, or was it me? If Guy had turned into a nut, then I had, too. I had so many restless nights when I would wake up and couldn’t fall back to sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about…ah, fuck it. I was too old for this kind of shit. I just wanted to go to work, do my job, and not think about the stupid past. I wanted to look ahead like a blind man, seeing nothing, but Guy wouldn’t let me. He kept pestering me about what I wanted in life, as if I had a choice! Finally, I caved in and told him some nonsense just to shut him up.“I want to get off this fucking planet and start all over again,” I said. “I want to be free, really free. It’s what I wanted to do for us way back then. ” We were at a bar drinking wine of all things—it was Guy’s bizarre idea to order a bottle of wine—and I only told him that because the ten or twenty other things I had told him just prior didn’t seem to satisfy him. When I told him that last thing, though, he finally sat back and smirked, a glimmer in his eyes.“That’s my Riki,” Guy chuckled. “I knew it.”“You know what?” I asked. The music playing over the speakers was a song that was popular when I was still Riki the Dark. It took me right back to those early days when things were new and fantastic, at least they were that way in my fucked up memories. “Hey, Guy, do you remember this song?” The expression on his face was strange, as if he were paralyzed in confusion. So I reminded him. “It was our song. We danced to this song when…when…” When did we dance to this song? The edges of the room grew murky, fuzzy, and Guy’s smiling face softened along with the music, until it all melted together. “Guy, take me home. I want to go home.” Sheesh, I couldn’t even hold my liquor like I used to.Guy lifted me out of the booth we were sitting in, his bionic arm around my waist, my feet stumbling two steps behind. It made me laugh, the way I was tripping over myself, but I felt no shame. “Ya know, Guy, the last time I felt this way, I was at a Pet party. That Blondie Master of mine drugged me. He put something in my drink and…and made me crawl on my hands and knees. Did I ever tell you that? Whatever. All water under the bridge, right?” We were outside now, the cloying stink of garbage instantly hitting my nostrils as Guy led me back to our apartment. “Those assholes…they couldn’t handle me. I sat right on my Master’s lap and let him kiss me, let him pour that drink down my throat, from his mouth to mine, like we were lovers or something.”My toe hit the curb and I almost fell, I was so trashed, but Guy caught me and swept me up in his arms, murmuring, “Lovers?” He kissed the side of my face as he continued walking. “Did you love your Master?”I buried my face in his neck, the world spinning around me in circles, and suddenly my heart ached so bad I thought it would break. “I can’t say it,” I sobbed. “Don’t make me say it.” Guy’s grip on me tightened but he didn’t get angry like he usually did whenever I mentioned his Blondie nemesis. Instead, he said something unexpected.“Riki, you’ve made me so happy.”***It was my first interstellar delivery and I was to be Guy’s co-pilot. As I strapped myself into the seat in the cockpit, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my first experiences as a courier in the Black Market. Back then, Alec was in the pilot’s seat for all those flights across Amoï. Shit. Here I was years later and I was still the co-pilot. I guess I hadn’t made much progress. And if it weren’t for Guy’s nagging, I wouldn’t be a co-pilot now. From what Katze told me, the only reason I was going on an off-planet run was because Guy had kept pestering him to give me an opportunity to see something new.“Are you sure about this?” I asked earlier that morning when Guy broke the news to me. “Katze didn’t say anything to me about me getting out of the warehouse.”“Trust me,” Guy said. “I’ve got it all squared away.”“But don’t I need to get re-trained?” I insisted. I couldn’t imagine the rules being less rigorous than before.“Re-trained?” snorted Guy. “What for? I’m the one steering the ship.”Sure enough, when we arrived at the space port, Katze was there looking like his usual blasé self. “Have a nice flight,” Katze murmured.“Does this mean I’ve been promoted or something?” I smirked. Any minute now, I was expecting him and Guy to turn around and say, “Fooled ya! You ain’t going nowhere!” But neither of them had a laugh at my expense. Instead, Katze pulled Guy aside and the two of them talked low and at length about who-knows-what. It was so fucking annoying. Yeah, yeah, so maybe Guy had run ahead of me in this respect, so what. He’d earned it, I guess. Still, riding shotgun—even if it wasn’t like being in the driver’s seat—was better than being left behind altogether. I lit a cigarette and puffed on it while the two of them chatted away out of earshot. Outside the window, I could see our ship being readied in the docking bay. It was a small ship, smaller than the cargo ships I flew on with Alec, but I figured the ships now could travel farther with less fuel cells. Besides, this would be an interstellar flight, which meant we would make use of the “folding” stations rather than fuel cells. My mood lifted thinking about doing something new for once. I was almost done with my second cigarette when the two of them finished talking.“Okay, baby, let’s get suited up,” Guy said, a hand clapped onto my shoulder.He pulled me along with him towards the locker room. I turned my head and caught Katze staring at me with a strange look in his eyes. He lifted his chin at me and called out, “Better luck in your next life!”That Katze. It struck me then that Katze was no less freakish than his Master.Once on board, I double-checked our cargo list and then our itinerary. We had three stops at three different planets. The last stop confused me.“Old Earth?” I mumbled. “Isn’t that a dead planet?”Guy conducted the final diagnostic run-down before take-off, replying with a laugh, “Who knows, maybe it’ll be a paradise.”The first two deliveries went without a hitch, so I expected the last delivery to go smoothly, too. Wrong! As we entered the outer atmosphere of Old Earth, the red light on the dashboard lit up. Let me tell you, a red light is always a sign that some awful shit is going down.“Hang on, baby!” Guy shouted. “Things are gonna get messy!”We landed near the bank of a stream. Our approach wasn’t exactly smooth, but at least our bodies were still intact because Guy was able to steer the ship onto a narrow strip of flat terrain. When we exited the ship, all around us was wilderness: tall trees, smooth boulders, the smell of soil and decaying leaves. Neither I nor Guy had ever seen such a landscape. It was all alien to us; we had only known concrete and metal and grime in Ceres, none of this prehistoric nature. There was no space port in sight.“What the fuck were we supposed to deliver here?” I grumbled, almost as loudly as my stomach. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I was hungry and in a lousy mood.Guy turned about in a circle, looking at the sky and then at the trees around us. Smoke was starting to billow from our ruined ship, but he wasn’t the least bit concerned about the cargo that wouldn’t be delivered to its proper destination. “Looks like we ain’t going back to Amoï anytime soon.” His own stomach grumbled loudly.We were mongrels at heart, so rather than waste time worrying about our aborted delivery run, we immediately set to scavenging for food. Water was plentiful, but if we didn’t eat, we wouldn’t survive for long.For hours we walked alongside the stream, drinking whenever we were thirsty. It kept us going. Along the way, we found fruiting plants hugging the dirt. The Mothers and Sisters had grown similar plants in the arboretum at Guardian, serving the fruit as a rare treat at lunch once. I think they were called strawberries. The ones growing by the stream were much smaller than the ones in Guardian, but even sweeter; we gorged on them, not knowing when our next meal would come. When those were no longer to be found, we chewed the leaves of random plants, dug up roots and picked weirdly shaped things growing on the surface of tree trunks just to have something in our stomachs.“Can we really eat this stuff?” I asked.“Yeah,” Guy assured me. “These things are called mushrooms. They don’t taste too bad.”I watched Guy chew on one. When he didn’t die right away, I bit into the one in my hand. It tasted vaguely like the artificial meat I was used to eating in Ceres. “How do you know these things are called mushrooms?”Guy smiled at me. “I did a lot of reading when you were gone. At first, I thought you’d be back in no time, but then…you didn’t come back. I had time to kill, so I read a bunch of files about Old Earth. Did ya know, we’re from Old Earth?”“Yeah, I remember the Mothers and Sisters telling us about that in Guardian.”“You actually paid attention?” Guy laughed.“What? You think you’re the only smarty pants?” I replied with a smirk.On the fourth day, right before nightfall, Guy found a carcass of a creature newly killed. Its belly had been torn open, its guts eaten. The gaping wound was already alive with a milling heap of beetles and cockroaches, but that didn’t stop us from tearing into the raw flesh of the animal. The taste of iron almost made me vomit straight away, but we were both mad with hunger and, for a pair of mongrels from Ceres, eating garbage was just a regular day.Slowly and steadily, we made our way through the thicket of trees, keeping the sound of the stream within earshot, always alert for anything that moved that might be a threat. Most of the time, we encountered small furry critters scavenging among the fallen leaves, and flying things above that screeched and called back and forth. The echoes of their foreign curses followed us like our own shadows. After a while, I paid them no mind. The only living thing in my line of sight was Guy. Looking at his muscled back as we wandered endlessly put my mind at ease. I didn’t know where we were going, but as long as we went together, I feared for nothing.At night we would sleep together under a pile of leaves and branches. We smelled of something I had never known in Ceres, but in the arboretum in Eos Tower, when I had met secretly with Mimea, I had smelled that scent. There was a certain tree in that arboretum, its leaves were thin, spindly green things, and it gave off a particular scent. If you touched the branches, it left a sticky substance on your fingers. It was that scent, that stickiness, that covered our bodies the next morning. I came to like it. I came to like many things as we walked about, not knowing what the day would bring. All I knew for sure was that at night we would lay together. Sometimes, if we were starved and exhausted, we would fall to sleep right away. Other times, we would do it, rut in the dirt like wild animals and finish covered in filth but so satisfied. I can honestly say, those days were some of the happiest of my life. We were free to live or to die, the choice was ours.After almost two weeks of seemingly purposeless trekking, Guy rushed ahead of me just as the sun rose directly above us. Normally, he kept me close by his side, but this time he didn’t even turn to look back to see if I was keeping up. I found him standing on a flat ledge in a small clearing. Beneath the stone overhang, water gushed from a deep fissure in the rocks. We had arrived at the source of the stream.“This is it?” I heard Guy mutter. “You shithead!” He began jabbing a finger at some imaginary enemy in front of him, accusing, “You said you had it all worked out! Fucking liar! What? Where?” Then he darted off into the surrounding brush, leaving me half-amused, half-worried.“Yeah, he’s definitely lost his mind,” I laughed to myself. My throat was parched from the long climb uphill, so I reached down and scooped up some water, drank it like a happy puppy. Man, it was freezing cold and so delicious! When I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand, I tasted salt. Salt! Quickly, I rubbed my palm against the flat stone I was standing on and a fine grit came loose from the surface. I licked my palm and tasted salt again. Holy shit, I had been craving it so bad, and here I was standing right on top of a giant heap of it. No wonder I had seen animals licking the stones here and there.In the near distance, I could hear Guy cursing, still angry as heck at somebody—I didn’t care who it was as long as it wasn’t me—so I flopped onto my back and decided to take a breather. Even though the air was cool, the noon sun was hot on my skin. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the wind toss the branches of the trees. Behind my eyelids, I saw gold and ice blue. I breathed in the scent of pure joy.It was the sound of Guy swearing, this time with excitement, that woke me from my nap. What the hell now? I wondered. I followed the sound of his wild hollering to a clump of bushes overshadowed by tall trees. He was sitting on a fallen tree stump, tinkering with a large, vaguely humanoid object. I sat down beside him, asking, “What is that thing?”Guy was busy pushing buttons on a front panel. “It’s a tool bot,” he said. “According to the specs, this one can cut through just about anything: wood, rocks, metals, you name it. It can heat and cool things, too. There’s another bot over there,” he added, pointing to a second device leaning against a tree. “That one’s an organics processor. You know what that means?” Guy’s grey eyes flashed with mischief as I shook my head. “It means we can make stout out of freaking piss!”Drinking my own converted piss wasn’t exactly on my to-do list, especially when my stomach was growling and I was shivering in the shade. “Can it make food and clothes?” I couldn’t believe that I was the practical one for once. “Where did these things come from? I mean, we’re in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone leave stuff like this lying around?” Unease had me peering into the shadows. “You think the owner is somewhere around here?”Guy’s hand paused for a second, and then he went right back to scrolling through the digital display on the panel. “Who cares? They’re ours now. Finders keepers. If somebody comes back for these things, then we’ll just kill him. Problem solved.”That Guy. We were a trillion miles from Ceres but he was ever the slumdog in attitude. “And you know how to—?” I was shut up by a sudden kiss.“These bots are no different than bikes. It’s all just parts and programming. Trust me, Riki.” Guy kissed me again, this time on the tip of my nose like I was a kid who needed coaxing. “I’m gonna make this work. I’m gonna make a good life for us.”One night, under a full moon when the dried leaves were covered in frost—the days had grown colder and colder—Guy threw me to the ground and had his way with me. I didn’t mind. I liked it when he was a little rough, only tonight, he wasn’t just rough, he was demanding in a way unlike him. He put his mouth all over me, sucking and biting at my neck and chest, licking at the stump where my cock used to be, his fingers curled against my sweet spot. He was right there, touching me in a way that brought me back to that love hotel all those years ago, when I was with him. The pleasure rising inside me was so great, I lost myself in it, not caring how loud I moaned to the stars above me in the night sky. The cold air made my nipples harden further as I arched my back and begged, “Give it to me, fuck me now, fuck me good…”Maybe it was the light of the fire casting a glow around him, but Guy’s eyes shone so brightly, the usual grey of his irises looked steely blue for a second, and I found myself crying out, “Iason!” He entered me, the pain and pleasure melting together, and all I could do was throw my arms around his shoulders as he drove into me like never before. The heat of my own skin was what made me realize that Guy felt unnaturally cold. Guy always felt so warm against me, no matter how cold it was around us, no matter if it was snowing or sleeting. We could be walking on icy terrain but his hand would be so toasty warm wrapped around my own fist. Tonight, though, his whole body, all of his skin felt cool against me.“I’m here,” I heard him say as I came apart beneath him. “Your Master has never left you.”
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“You fucking shithead!!!”There it was, that unmitigated fury in his voice that I was yearning to hear. When Riki finally spat those words laced with pure vitriol, it woke me at last from a dream, a long dream in which I was merely waiting for my Pet to show his true face. That face—dark hair, dark eyes—and all his honest hatred for me, his Master. This was my Riki.I didn’t intend to tell him who I was. I didn’t intend to reveal myself, not at that moment. But then, when? When did I ever intend to reveal myself? I had been hiding behind the guise of Guy’s face all this time, biding my time, as if I were certain that sometime in the future I could tell him the truth. Time, though, was a funny thing. For a Blondie, it meant nothing. For a mongrel, a human, it was a precious commodity, one that I felt in my very bones, in Guy’s bones as I resided in his body. Time was running out, for me, the Master trapped in a mongrel’s body. And so it came out that night as I brought my dearest Riki to climax, as I poured my very soul into him. There was no turning back.Riki swung his fist at me. I easily caught it in my own hand, pinned him down, my face a mere inch from his. His eyes were red in the glow cast by the fire next to us, as red as the blood now running in my all-too-human veins. Did he see me? The real me? I had to know! “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.“What’s wrong with you?!” he snarled back.Above us the night sky sparkled with countless stars. Next to us, the fire popped and sighed, as if serenading us with a love song. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” I replied, still holding him down by the wrists. “Why did you—”“Who are you?” he interrupted. “Why did you say…”I felt him go limp beneath me, his breath erratic. And then I heard him say it, the words so beautiful it felt as if my heart would break.“Are you really there…Iason Mink?”He said my name. He called his Master by his name. “You still know your Master?” I asked, my vision blurry even though we were so close to each other. I realized then that I was…I was…“Why did you make me wait so long? Why did you lie to me? Shit. You were always such an asshole.”It was then that I felt all the energy leave me, like a tide going out, I had nothing left in me besides my own relief. Ah, to be human was to be weak! I let go of his wrists and lay down beside him, on my back like an upended primordial cockroach, staring up at the night sky. I was too, too pathetic! “When did you know?” I asked, laughing despite myself.“I didn’t,” Riki replied, disgruntled. “I just thought you had gone nuts. Guy, I mean. I thought Guy had gone nuts. I didn’t think a Blondie could lose his mind.” There was a long silence, and then Riki asked, “Did you go crazy, too? Are you really…” He rolled onto his side and stared at me. “…is it really you, Iason?”I was half-inclined to deny it. After all, for a Blondie to find himself in this sorry condition was all too embarrassing. “If I told you I was just testing you, would you believe me?”Riki looked long and hard at me before stating without any hesitation, “Guy would never pull this kind of stunt. He would never ‘test’ me like this. Only an asshole like Iason Mink would stomp all over my heart and expect me to forgive him. Right? Only you would have the power to bring me here so I could think I was free. I don’t know what you did, how you did it, I don’t care. Just tell me I’m right. Tell me you let Guy live, tell me we died together on that bridge, tell me this is all a beautiful dream.”A million thoughts echoed in my brain. Everything Jupiter had taught me, everything I had given her in return, it all swirled round and round, dancing, sparkling, as brilliant and ephemeral as the crackling flames of the fire beside us. It really was a beautiful dream. I looked into the deep, dark pools of Riki’s eyes and smiled, happier than I had ever been in my long existence. “My sweet, sweet Pet,” I whispered, “let’s go to sleep. Let’s sleep for a millennia or two. When we wake up, I promise you, I will love you all over again.”
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The grinding jaws of the stonebreaker halted. Minutes later, amidst the still-choking dust swirling about, two fully-suited men scrambled down the gentle slope of the hill and into the deep trench left by the automated heavy machinery.“What is it?” the man further back shouted. “Can you see anything?”The other man prodded into the broken shale with a sensor at the end of a long pole. “It’s here. Quick, send in the duster.”In a few moments, a drone appeared. It cast a laser light onto the ground, shaving off layer-by-layer of hard materials. An hour later, the suited men gasped. Outlined as clear as day were the skeletons of two humans and, judging by the size and configuration of their hip, arm, and leg bones, they were both male. The pair were facing each other, foreheads touching. One of the figures had a prosthetic left arm made of titanium, its fingers wrapped around the throat of the smaller male, crushing what would have been its windpipe. After further analysis of the surrounding soil and rocks, it was determined that the pair had died within the last five thousand years. No human remains had ever been found in such recent strata.“What were they doing there?” the one man asked.“Beats me,” the other replied.Old Earth’s original inhabitants had fled millennia ago, seeking to colonize other solar systems after depleting their own planet’s resources. Now, its stores of uranium and nuclear waste, necessary for space travel, were a commodity driving the multi-stellar fuel consortiums back to Old Earth with their technicians and equipment. Mining stations dotted the landscape. The abandoned planet wasn’t suitable for human habitation anymore, the radioactivity too poisonous, so this singular discovery of skeletal remains was quite shocking.The man with the sensor walked about several paces, jabbing the pole into the shale at random spots, and came up empty. “Let’s get these two back to base camp first. Who knows, maybe we’ll find more of them tomorrow.”“Wouldn’t that be something!”“Yeah, it would be a miracle,” the man said. He wasn’t a profiteer hoping to cash in on illegal riches across the universe. He was just doing his job. He had a wife and kid back home. He didn’t care about making dirty money on the side for the scumbags trading in precious metals and whatever else was valuable. He just wanted to finish this one job and go back home a little bit richer. His client’s name was strange. Raoul Am. What kind of name was that? But then again, who was he to question it? He was a working man, interested only in doing an honest day’s work. He looked down again at the two ossified remains and was struck by both the violence and tenderness in front of him. It was obvious that the larger male had strangled the smaller one to death, and yet the way the two figures lay together so peacefully made him think it wasn’t outright murder. There had been no struggle. If there had been no fingers crushing the other’s throat, then one might think they had merely embraced lovingly, gently, as if they had just kissed and gone to sleep. Yes, they had merely kissed and gone to sleep.
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What is the nature of obsession? Is it like a seed lying dormant in the soil—a dry, hard, encapsulated thing—awaiting something to trigger its resurrection? Was that seed thirsting for a soaking rain to soften its shell so that roots could grow and dig deep into the dirt of desire, of need, of eternal love? Was I always waiting for that rain, for that brilliant glimmer in a pool of darkness? Was I always waiting for those dark eyes, for that dark hair?I do not know.It felt more like a dream, one that satisfied my every desire, only to leave me wanting upon awakening. And when I awakened at last, I saw a blurry but instantly recognizable face, one that I knew like the back of my very own hands.“Raoul.” My voice sounded both foreign and familiar in my ears as I said his name. Then my brother’s face came into focus, and I felt the touch of his hand upon my chest.“Iason.”I knew that name. It was my name. My name was Iason Mink. Slowly, it all came back to me, like the ebb and flow of water, lapping, lapping, and with each kiss of wetness upon dry land, my memories came back to me. I was Iason Mink, Blondie, king of Tanagura, most beloved of Jupiter. I was her favorite son, the one our Maker loved best. I lived here in Eos Tower…I lived here in the muck and dirt of Old Earth…I lived just long enough to embrace my precious Pet…***The boundaries of Tanagura had expanded to encompass what had been both Midas and Ceres. Two-thirds of Amoï was now wasteland, but the habitable land was prime real estate for an entire stellar quadrant ever since one of the planet’s two moons had veered off-course after a massive asteroid strike that had sheered off half the rocky sphere. This I learned from Raoul after awakening.I was greeted with his brilliant pair of emerald eyes and a droll, “Has the prince had his fun playing the pauper?”The sarcasm, previously lacking in him, was a nice change. “Have you had your fun with ‘Iason Mink’ all this time? Finally satisfied? Talk about dragging your feet.”I was annoyed that my brother had taken so long to bring me back to my original consciousness. After all, I had thought it would only take a few decades—a blink of an eye in Blondie time—but, no. According to Raoul, it had been quite a bit longer than that. I saw it for myself as we strolled about Tanagura on a mild evening in spring. There wasn’t a single human in sight. In fact, there were no recognizable buildings or landmarks either. This was not a surprise. I had lived long enough to witness drastic changes in civilizations here and there, so a change in scenery in my own hometown was just another day for a Blondie.“You are wealthier than ever,” Raoul sighed wistfully as he held a flower to his nose and sniffed. Then he pressed the palm-sized bloom to my face for me to smell.I took a deep breath and was lost for a moment in bliss. “This peony…” The citrus notes were so heavy I could taste it on my tongue. “Did you find a rootstock or did you manufacture it?”Raoul pulled the bloom away from my face and held it to his chest, caressed it gently as we walked along the boulevard. “Take a guess.”On either side of us were lush gardens fronting one massive estate after another, each enclosed with walls punctuated by elaborate gates. No one lived at these compounds. They were merely the holdings of Jupiter’s children, most of whom were absentee, or the investments of off-world capitalists. Raoul and I were the only remaining Blondies tending to her now, her coding so corrupted she no longer made any sense at all. Well, it was what it was.“Hmm…you manufactured it,” I said.Raoul failed to suppress a laugh, turning his handsome face away from me, but I knew he was pleased. “Yes, well, it did take some time to get it right,” he admitted with no small amount of coyness.My brother was adorable when he was like that, so proud of himself but trying to hide it. I decided to take advantage of his good mood to ask what I had been wondering. “And Riki? How much of him is manufactured? How much of him is real?”We had walked for some time now. The one remaining moon of Amoï was high in the sky and reflected in the water of the river that connected Tanagura with what had been Ceres. Ceres was now chock full of expensive high-rise apartments, the mongrels who were the former inhabitants of what had been slums long dead from a virus that exterminated all humans on the planet. They were the last to die off, those slum dogs. Those humans in Midas were already weak from a life of indulgence, but the mongrels held on the longest, finally succumbing to the most painful illnesses.My Riki, though…he didn’t have to die that way. He died by my own hands, quick and painless.“You know, if Jupiter didn’t allow it…” Raoul tried to explain.“I know, I know,” I interrupted. I didn’t need to know the details of what Raoul and our Maker had said to each other, the long conversations where the ‘dilemma’ that was Riki and I was discussed. I only needed to know one thing. “Whatever Jupiter said, I don’t care. I’m not a child, for shit’s sake.”We strolled in silence once again, each lost in thought. I liked the silence of our surroundings. It reminded me of my time on Old Earth, when the only other human voice heard was Riki’s. Of course, I had heard Guy’s voice whenever I spoke to Riki, but I had gotten used to it. Gotten used to it. That wasn’t something a Blondie would say, but I wasn’t exactly a Blondie while I resided in that blasted mongrel’s body. Being a human was torturous, an utter humiliation, but it gave me the most precious insight into Riki—what he thought, felt, wanted, needed—and it was more valuable than all the wealth I had acquired as Tanagura’s most elite Blondie. To sink to such depths…it made me know what it was to be human, something I could never know as Jupiter’s creation.Raoul reached out and clutched my hand as we continued to walk. On either side of us the lights of the ghostly residences blinked on and off, lending the windows the charming effect of stars twinkling in the sky. Though the apartments were merely placeholders, empty buildings into which credits were sunk, to be later redeemed when the owners needed easy money to spend on something else, the AI-designed light show did have entertainment value.“Who would have thought it would be just you and I at the end of the day,” I mused. I noticed that Raoul still wore gloves. On Old Earth, it had always been skin-on-skin.Raoul laughed. “Maybe it all makes sense. You and I…well, we were always mixed up in all sorts of things, weren’t we?”The Black Market now was reduced to Pets manufactured in Raoul’s labs and, irony of all ironies, the most desirable Pets being sold to buyers were all descended from the one child that resulted from Riki and Mimea’s illicit coupling. That fact alone gave me a sense of satisfaction. My anger over his former betrayal had long melted away.“I didn’t want to kill him,” I admitted out of the blue. When Raoul didn’t even pause in his stride, I realized he knew exactly what I was talking about, and it made me squeeze his gloved hand tighter in my own fist. “The radiation on Old Earth was considerable; I could feel it in my own body, in Guy’s body, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before Riki would suffer the same effects.” The pain had been excruciating. I didn’t want Riki to feel what I felt trapped in a weak human body. I didn’t want him to be any less than what he was: beautiful, powerful, at the height of his happiness. If it weren’t for Guy, for his disgusting human shell shedding hair, skin, brain cells, I wouldn’t have known what it was to truly love Riki in a way he needed most. “I had to kill him. He deserved no less.”“You could have dragged it out a little longer,” Raoul said. “The scan of your bones and his bones showed that you both could have lived another six months.”Another six months. “Pain free?” I replied. “No. I didn’t want that for Riki.” In those six months, my Riki would have lost his dark hair, his deep, dark, black hair. “He wouldn’t have been my Riki if he lost his hair.”“Enough,” Raoul said. “It’s time. No more reminiscing.”He called for an aero taxi which took us to his lab in Herbay, the same lab in which he extracted the nanobots from my brain and placed them in Guy’s, the same lab in which he extracted the nanobots from Guy’s titanium arm retrieved from Old Earth, the same lab in which he awoke my consciousness in Iason Mink’s body after replacing his memories with my own. It was in this lab that I saw my Riki again, nothing more than a fetus in a holding tank awaiting its birth.“Is it really him?” I asked. It was difficult to know. After all, I had only known Riki well after this stage of development.“It’s him alright,” Raoul replied with a huff. “The DNA from the bones extracted from Old Earth weren’t hopelessly corrupted by radiation yet and, woven together with the DNA on file of Mimea’s child…it should form a fairly accurate approximation of your original Pet.”I tapped the glass of the tank. The human floating in amniotic fluid didn’t react, its large black eyes seeing nothing, its small hands curled into tight fists, ready for a fight.“That’s right, Riki,” I whispered. “Don’t ever change.”