Fic: I Fought the Claw (and the Claw Won)
Apr. 26th, 2013 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalPart One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Which was how I found myself stuck back in my comfy quarters, with some less than comfy "jewelry" attached. Now aside from the collar I was wearing a set of stainless steel cuffs about three centimeters wide and one centimeter thick, padded with breathable rubber on the inside, on my ankles and wrists. Very fetching, not to mention high tech, since each of the buggers had mini-tractor/pressor units in them that could be used lock my wrists and/or ankles together, or force them apart, to restrict my movements.
Fortunately my charming hostess only hobbled my legs, forcing me to walk at a shuffle around my quarters. Not that I'd ever been fond of sprinting anyway, but taking five minutes to go from the loo to the galley was a bit annoying. But I had to live with it for nearly another week, as the ship went along her merry way, presumably to the refueling station that I'd overheard the Red Vixen discussing with her pet bodyguard.
Finally, at the start of day eight of my visit, my lovely hostess marched in with Alinadar at her heels, carrying a plastic bag which she tossed onto the table.
"Do be a good boy and put this on," she asked.
I raised my brows as I looked in the bag. "Any particular reason you want me playing dress up?"
"We are going Out. Given the nature of the place where I'll be visiting, a little eye candy beside me wouldn't be out of place." She smiled the sort of smile that would make lesser males kneel at her feet right there, whether or not they had locking jewelry. "I assume you'd rather not be walking about in public in Institutional Orange."
"And what's to stop me running away the first chance I get?" I asked.
"This," she said, displaying the ruby encrusted ring on her finger, with a blinking display at center. "Try and move more than three meters away from me and your hobble tractors will tighten up. If you manage to hop to five meters away, your shock collar goes off."
"Charming," I said. "I'm assuming that our destination is the sort of place where yelling 'Help, I've been kidnapped by a sexy piratetess' wouldn't be effective?"
"You assume correctly. Now if you could get dressed, please?"
"Yes, ma'am," I said, because really, what else could I say? Besides, getting off the ship meant the potential of getting away. Even if my chances weren't good, they were better than being stuck in a comfy cell.
Which is how I found myself being escorted through the Scarlet Claw's boarding tube onto the refueling station, wearing what amounted to a red flap of silk across my privates and my bum, hanging from a silver chain around my waist, my aforementioned jewelry, and not a blessed thing else. I'll admit my hostess wasn't much better off, but it all looked better on her, her golden bangles and earring setting off her bright orange fur nicely. Her pet bodyguard, walking two steps behind us, probably had at least five times more clothing by surface area than the two of us put together.
"All right, Ali. Time to go bar hopping," the Red Vixen instructed.
"Yes, Milady." Ali gave her mistress a mulish look. "You'll call me if there's trouble this time, right?"
"Yes, Ali. Stop fretting." She gave the other vixen a motherly sort of pat on the cheek and led me off. Literally led me off, since I was trailing her on the end of a silver chain leash looped around her paw. It said something about the quality of the station we were on that we barely got a glance for our breezy outfits or her towing living property behind her.
"Charming facility," I noted, stepping around a bit of half dried chewing gum on the deck.
"It serves well enough, for the sort of clientele it caters too." Though I couldn't help but notice her nose did wrinkle as some of the more exotic (and illegal) scents wafted our way.
I will admit one thing, walking behind the Red Vixen provided an absolutely lovely view of her tail section, especially when her bum flap sashayed back and forth. It provided me with plenty of amusement until we arrived at our destination, in a slightly more reputable part of the station, well clear of the docks and the bars that catered to freighter personnel who wanted to walk the minimum distance before drinking themselves into oblivion.
We stopped in front of a storefront, with real wooden doors, a mark of heavy sophistication indeed, especially when I tried to add up the price of shipping them out of a gravity well and got cross-eyed for my effort. Images of diaphanous beauties belonging to the Six Races (and three sexes) were laser traced into the steel above the doorway. A brass plaque that wouldn't have looked out of place on one of the high streets back on Foxen Prime declared it to simply be Habebti's Sophistications. Presumably if you were sophisticated enough you needed no further explanations, though I could certainly take a guess.
The Red Vixen glanced back at me, quirking her brow up. "Do you have any pollen allergies?"
"I don't think so," I said. "I'm just allergic to your horrible perfume." Actually my eyes were watering right then, but there was enough slack in my leash to let me get out of direct breathing range.
"Excellent. Now follow along, and try to keep your mouth shut." She stepped up the door, me following perforce, which opened before she could even touch the annunicator. A leggy human female dressed in blue harem silks, and a harem's guard's sword and stunner on her belt, smiled and gave us a bow. "Lady Red, a pleasure to see you again," she said.
"Thank you, Savannah," the Red Vixen replied, smiling back. "It's good to see you as well. Is your mistress in?"
"She's always here if you're calling." Savannah gave me a brief glance. "New toy?" she asked.
"A recent acquisition. I'm hoping to send him along his way in a bit, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself yet."
Heartening thought that last line. I tried to not let it distract me as I was pulled along.
We were led through the doors into a sort of antechamber/throne room. Lovely ladies (and a few lads, let's be fair now) out of five of the six sentient races were lounging about on couches or cushions throughout the room, the tiled walls lined with pots that had a hundred different exotic flowers sprouting from them. At the center of everything was Race Number Six, represented by a blue skinned, green haired, heavily muscled female wazagan dressed in a silk dress that clung to her curves nicely. Alas, a purely aesthetic consideration. Never mind the half a meter height difference between herself and I, the wazzies were well known for being terminally confused, or amused, concerning all things fun and exciting about mammalian sex practices. Egg layers, y'know.
"Mistress Habebti, a pleasure to see you again." The Red Vixen gave the wazagan a polite bow, laying back comfortably on a couch a couple of the pretty boys dragged up for her. I got a doggie sized cushion on the floor next to it. Woof. I took the hint and kneeled down, playing the servant for now, the better to make like a piece of furniture and listen.
Tea was served (none for us cushion warmers, blast it) and chit-chat was exchanged, until Mistress Habebti took a significant sip and set her cup down on her saucer, saying, "You seem intent on causing a great deal of havoc with House Highglider's shipping business. An odd thing to do, after you went to so much trouble to make everyone think you were dead."
"I rethought my decision, after gaining new information about House Highglider's operations," the Red Vixen said coyly.
"Profitable information?"
"Truthfully, no." The Red Vixen took a sip. "It's a matter of honor."
Mistress Habebti raised an eye ridge. "Honor? I know you follow a stricter code than most pirates bother with, but going to battle over a matter of honor is just an expensive way to get yourself killed."
"Normally I'd agree with you, but this is a special case, and if it works out then it will be very personally satisfying to me."
"As you will. I assume you want more data on upcoming Highglider shipments?"
"I've got my Ali working that one. What I'd like to know is whether I'm going to have to worry about interference from Bloody Margo."
I stood still, ears pricking forward, and I don’t mind saying my blood might have gotten distinctly frosty at the mention of the name. Bloody Margo was the worst of the worst, when it came to the pirate trade. She didn't bother applying for ransom when she caught mercs. She just shot them in the head and dumped their bodies out the airlock. What she did to the passengers and crews of the ships she took wasn't something I thought too hard about. It made for sleepless nights if you read the Navy's security flyers.
"Ah, that sort of information is going to be expensive," Mistress Habebti said carefully. "This station is outside her claimed territory, but only just. So have several of the attacks you've committed."
"I know you don't pay tithe to her, Habebti, but you've never loved her either." The Red Vixen gave her a small bow and set a small, unmarked cred card on the table beside them. It must have been a measure of respect between them that the mistress of the house didn't even bother to slot it through her personal reader to check the amount. "Do you think she's going to give me trouble for skirting near her?"
"You steal a kill from her, she'll have your pretty ears and tail," Habebti said. "But I haven't heard anything specific about her operating in the area, beyond the usual rumors of her spies being everywhere."
"Well, she won't have much opportunity to hunt for me. Once I'm done my business with Highglider's ships, I'm retiring."
Habebti's brows rose. "Really? Has business been that profitable? More to the point, where did you get that much sense? Most of your comrades keep flying until the law of averages smashes them flat."
"I have found True Love," the Red Vixen said, and only someone as sexy as she could pronounce that drippy statement in a way that was both sincere and let me hear the capital letters. "So it's time for me to find a safer occupation before I start raising cubs."
"Congratulations, my dear. Does your True Love know you found him, or her?"
"Him, and yes, though I suspect a few things will be a surprise on our wedding night. In the meantime though, I'm going to be busy for the foreseeable future."
"Well, congratulations then." Mistress Habebti raised her tea cup in salute. "May you find all the happiness in the world. Though I'll confess I'll miss your company."
"Oh, I suspect we'll see each other again, though I doubt you'll recognize me." The Red Vixen stood up, gave her hostess another bow and took her leave. At a tug on my leash, I got to my feet and followed her back out into the station corridor.
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Which was how I found myself stuck back in my comfy quarters, with some less than comfy "jewelry" attached. Now aside from the collar I was wearing a set of stainless steel cuffs about three centimeters wide and one centimeter thick, padded with breathable rubber on the inside, on my ankles and wrists. Very fetching, not to mention high tech, since each of the buggers had mini-tractor/pressor units in them that could be used lock my wrists and/or ankles together, or force them apart, to restrict my movements.
Fortunately my charming hostess only hobbled my legs, forcing me to walk at a shuffle around my quarters. Not that I'd ever been fond of sprinting anyway, but taking five minutes to go from the loo to the galley was a bit annoying. But I had to live with it for nearly another week, as the ship went along her merry way, presumably to the refueling station that I'd overheard the Red Vixen discussing with her pet bodyguard.
Finally, at the start of day eight of my visit, my lovely hostess marched in with Alinadar at her heels, carrying a plastic bag which she tossed onto the table.
"Do be a good boy and put this on," she asked.
I raised my brows as I looked in the bag. "Any particular reason you want me playing dress up?"
"We are going Out. Given the nature of the place where I'll be visiting, a little eye candy beside me wouldn't be out of place." She smiled the sort of smile that would make lesser males kneel at her feet right there, whether or not they had locking jewelry. "I assume you'd rather not be walking about in public in Institutional Orange."
"And what's to stop me running away the first chance I get?" I asked.
"This," she said, displaying the ruby encrusted ring on her finger, with a blinking display at center. "Try and move more than three meters away from me and your hobble tractors will tighten up. If you manage to hop to five meters away, your shock collar goes off."
"Charming," I said. "I'm assuming that our destination is the sort of place where yelling 'Help, I've been kidnapped by a sexy piratetess' wouldn't be effective?"
"You assume correctly. Now if you could get dressed, please?"
"Yes, ma'am," I said, because really, what else could I say? Besides, getting off the ship meant the potential of getting away. Even if my chances weren't good, they were better than being stuck in a comfy cell.
Which is how I found myself being escorted through the Scarlet Claw's boarding tube onto the refueling station, wearing what amounted to a red flap of silk across my privates and my bum, hanging from a silver chain around my waist, my aforementioned jewelry, and not a blessed thing else. I'll admit my hostess wasn't much better off, but it all looked better on her, her golden bangles and earring setting off her bright orange fur nicely. Her pet bodyguard, walking two steps behind us, probably had at least five times more clothing by surface area than the two of us put together.
"All right, Ali. Time to go bar hopping," the Red Vixen instructed.
"Yes, Milady." Ali gave her mistress a mulish look. "You'll call me if there's trouble this time, right?"
"Yes, Ali. Stop fretting." She gave the other vixen a motherly sort of pat on the cheek and led me off. Literally led me off, since I was trailing her on the end of a silver chain leash looped around her paw. It said something about the quality of the station we were on that we barely got a glance for our breezy outfits or her towing living property behind her.
"Charming facility," I noted, stepping around a bit of half dried chewing gum on the deck.
"It serves well enough, for the sort of clientele it caters too." Though I couldn't help but notice her nose did wrinkle as some of the more exotic (and illegal) scents wafted our way.
I will admit one thing, walking behind the Red Vixen provided an absolutely lovely view of her tail section, especially when her bum flap sashayed back and forth. It provided me with plenty of amusement until we arrived at our destination, in a slightly more reputable part of the station, well clear of the docks and the bars that catered to freighter personnel who wanted to walk the minimum distance before drinking themselves into oblivion.
We stopped in front of a storefront, with real wooden doors, a mark of heavy sophistication indeed, especially when I tried to add up the price of shipping them out of a gravity well and got cross-eyed for my effort. Images of diaphanous beauties belonging to the Six Races (and three sexes) were laser traced into the steel above the doorway. A brass plaque that wouldn't have looked out of place on one of the high streets back on Foxen Prime declared it to simply be Habebti's Sophistications. Presumably if you were sophisticated enough you needed no further explanations, though I could certainly take a guess.
The Red Vixen glanced back at me, quirking her brow up. "Do you have any pollen allergies?"
"I don't think so," I said. "I'm just allergic to your horrible perfume." Actually my eyes were watering right then, but there was enough slack in my leash to let me get out of direct breathing range.
"Excellent. Now follow along, and try to keep your mouth shut." She stepped up the door, me following perforce, which opened before she could even touch the annunicator. A leggy human female dressed in blue harem silks, and a harem's guard's sword and stunner on her belt, smiled and gave us a bow. "Lady Red, a pleasure to see you again," she said.
"Thank you, Savannah," the Red Vixen replied, smiling back. "It's good to see you as well. Is your mistress in?"
"She's always here if you're calling." Savannah gave me a brief glance. "New toy?" she asked.
"A recent acquisition. I'm hoping to send him along his way in a bit, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself yet."
Heartening thought that last line. I tried to not let it distract me as I was pulled along.
We were led through the doors into a sort of antechamber/throne room. Lovely ladies (and a few lads, let's be fair now) out of five of the six sentient races were lounging about on couches or cushions throughout the room, the tiled walls lined with pots that had a hundred different exotic flowers sprouting from them. At the center of everything was Race Number Six, represented by a blue skinned, green haired, heavily muscled female wazagan dressed in a silk dress that clung to her curves nicely. Alas, a purely aesthetic consideration. Never mind the half a meter height difference between herself and I, the wazzies were well known for being terminally confused, or amused, concerning all things fun and exciting about mammalian sex practices. Egg layers, y'know.
"Mistress Habebti, a pleasure to see you again." The Red Vixen gave the wazagan a polite bow, laying back comfortably on a couch a couple of the pretty boys dragged up for her. I got a doggie sized cushion on the floor next to it. Woof. I took the hint and kneeled down, playing the servant for now, the better to make like a piece of furniture and listen.
Tea was served (none for us cushion warmers, blast it) and chit-chat was exchanged, until Mistress Habebti took a significant sip and set her cup down on her saucer, saying, "You seem intent on causing a great deal of havoc with House Highglider's shipping business. An odd thing to do, after you went to so much trouble to make everyone think you were dead."
"I rethought my decision, after gaining new information about House Highglider's operations," the Red Vixen said coyly.
"Profitable information?"
"Truthfully, no." The Red Vixen took a sip. "It's a matter of honor."
Mistress Habebti raised an eye ridge. "Honor? I know you follow a stricter code than most pirates bother with, but going to battle over a matter of honor is just an expensive way to get yourself killed."
"Normally I'd agree with you, but this is a special case, and if it works out then it will be very personally satisfying to me."
"As you will. I assume you want more data on upcoming Highglider shipments?"
"I've got my Ali working that one. What I'd like to know is whether I'm going to have to worry about interference from Bloody Margo."
I stood still, ears pricking forward, and I don’t mind saying my blood might have gotten distinctly frosty at the mention of the name. Bloody Margo was the worst of the worst, when it came to the pirate trade. She didn't bother applying for ransom when she caught mercs. She just shot them in the head and dumped their bodies out the airlock. What she did to the passengers and crews of the ships she took wasn't something I thought too hard about. It made for sleepless nights if you read the Navy's security flyers.
"Ah, that sort of information is going to be expensive," Mistress Habebti said carefully. "This station is outside her claimed territory, but only just. So have several of the attacks you've committed."
"I know you don't pay tithe to her, Habebti, but you've never loved her either." The Red Vixen gave her a small bow and set a small, unmarked cred card on the table beside them. It must have been a measure of respect between them that the mistress of the house didn't even bother to slot it through her personal reader to check the amount. "Do you think she's going to give me trouble for skirting near her?"
"You steal a kill from her, she'll have your pretty ears and tail," Habebti said. "But I haven't heard anything specific about her operating in the area, beyond the usual rumors of her spies being everywhere."
"Well, she won't have much opportunity to hunt for me. Once I'm done my business with Highglider's ships, I'm retiring."
Habebti's brows rose. "Really? Has business been that profitable? More to the point, where did you get that much sense? Most of your comrades keep flying until the law of averages smashes them flat."
"I have found True Love," the Red Vixen said, and only someone as sexy as she could pronounce that drippy statement in a way that was both sincere and let me hear the capital letters. "So it's time for me to find a safer occupation before I start raising cubs."
"Congratulations, my dear. Does your True Love know you found him, or her?"
"Him, and yes, though I suspect a few things will be a surprise on our wedding night. In the meantime though, I'm going to be busy for the foreseeable future."
"Well, congratulations then." Mistress Habebti raised her tea cup in salute. "May you find all the happiness in the world. Though I'll confess I'll miss your company."
"Oh, I suspect we'll see each other again, though I doubt you'll recognize me." The Red Vixen stood up, gave her hostess another bow and took her leave. At a tug on my leash, I got to my feet and followed her back out into the station corridor.
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