Royce's Random Thoughts

 
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Anna looked as her tigermorph master, the Great and Powerful Khan, entered their dining chamber. The dining table sat on a large marble balcony overlooking the port of Ohohcee Island. The town below was gaily lit with faux gas lamps. At the docks sailing ships belonging to various player groups sat at anchor, either undergoing refurbishment or just giving their crews a chance to relax while not maintaining their chosen persona.

"How did the court go today, Master?" Anna asked, as Khan sat at the table across from her. Her morph master and lover didn't need to eat of course, but he often simulated it to make conversation with Anna easier.

"There was nothing notable," Khan replied. He was dressed tonight rather formally, which for him meant he was wearing an open vest instead of being completely bare-chested. The better to impress the human PC's that came to his court. "Two looting disputes that should have been settled by lower level moderators, and one individual who repeatedly violated the player harassment rules. He'll be spending a week in the penalty dungeon."

Which was actually secure and just a bit uncomfortable, as opposed to the game dungeons on the other islands, which were specifically designed to be escapable by determined or clever players, Anna knew. Or the dungeons that were both secure and designed for fun, which was her choice. She smiled at her master. "Hopefully he'll learn his lesson," she noted.

"Hopefully," Khan agreed. "I dislike perma banning players. It just means they'll try to enter other LARPS instead of changing their behavior."

"Anything else?" she asked, between bites of her salad.

"One thing." Khan frowned, which immediately got Anna's attention. It was rare that her morph master allowed an expression of worry to cross his face. "I also was petitioned to intervene in a case involving the morph that belonged to a player."

"What's the matter?" Anna asked, frowning in turn. "Was the player abusing his morph?" Not every human got along as well with their assigned morph as Anna did with Khan. For some, it was hard to deal with having a robotic servant/keeper permanently following their heels for the rest of their lives. Most people adapted, either treating their morph as either a slightly pesky friend, a not terribly trustworthy slave, or an appliance with built in spyware. Some however, chose to express their frustration by either deliberately giving their morph contradictory orders, repeatedly attempting self-harm to force their morph to intervene, or outright physically abusing their morph in ways that the morph could not respond to without risking harm to their Designated Focus.

"No, no," Khan said. "Quite the opposite. Mr. Akatane treated his morph very well. Unfortunately, Akatane suffered a blot clot that travelled to his brain, whilst his party's ship was a day out from their destination. By the time an air ambulance could rendezvous to airlift him to a hospital, he was dead, poor fellow."

"Oh," Anna said. Such unfortunate medical issues happened sometimes in long-term LARPS like the Seven Seas, and she was sure it grated against Khan's built-in need to protect humans, even as he played the role of Evil Emperor and a grand antagonist for players to scheme against. "So what's the deal with his morph?"

"The other players in his ship's crew don't want Jocko, Akatane's morph, to be recycled," Khan said. "They stated that Jocko and Mr. Akatane had been friends, and it wasn't fair that Jocko's memories would be uploaded to the Groupmind's gestalt and his parts broken down."

"That seems fair," Anna allowed. "I mean, I'm sure they were upset about Mr. Akatane's death. Getting rid of his morph would have only rubbed salt in the wound." She cocked her head Khan. "So what did you decide?"

"I informed them that the subject required further consultation," Khan said. "Which is why we're talking about it now."

"So one morph gets to keep going after his Designated Focus passes away," Anna said. "I don't see how that's a big problem."

"The problem is, it isn't just one morph" Khan said, standing up to pace beside the table. "This is becoming an increasing problem as humans begin to age and die on the Ring. More and more friends and family members are petitioning to let the morphs of deceased humans remain operational. The numbers are currently in the low thousands, however the Groupmind projects the number of Unfocused morphs will increase exponentially over time. In perhaps less than five hundred years, they will outnumber humans, unless steps are taken."

"Are you sure that's a problem?" Anna asked. "More humans are going to be born, after all. The Unfocused morphs can be just assigned to them."

"There will be a period before that equilibrium is reached, when the morphs still outnumber humans," Khan pointed out. "Humans may begin to feel overwhelmed."

"I think you're underestimating human egos, love," Anna said, smiling slightly. 

"There is another issue," Khan went on. "From the Groupmind's perspective, it is disturbing that humans are growing emotional attachments to morphs."

She raised an eyebrow to her morph lover/master. "Pot calling the kettle black, are we? Who was the giant distributed robobrain that gave me a morph to fulfill my every kinky fantasy as a bribe?"

"You were considered unusual," Khan pointed out. "You already had an inclination to be attracted to morphs. The Groupmind believed that such emotions would not be as common with other humans, particularly as morphs are the direct tools of their oppressor."

"You can't have it both ways, love," Anna said. "You want people to trust their morphs enough to protect them, but not create emotional attachments to them?"

"They're just machines," Khan stated.

Anna shook her head. "Master, humans will form emotional bonds with anything. I used to apologize to my Roomba when I tripped over it in my apartment. You shouldn't be surprised that we like something that walks, talks, and wants us to be happy."

"But why grow distraught at the idea of someone else's morph being destroyed?" Khan asked.

"Because that morph is their last hard connection with that person," Anna pointed out. She patted her heart briefly. "Look, I'm human. If I'm really lucky I've got about sixty, maybe seventy years of life left in me. When I'm gone, I'm gone." She stood up in front of Khan and touched his forehead. "But you're effectively immortal. So long as you continue to function, I'll be remembered by someone. That's comforting. So for these people, having the deceased's morph still around reassures them that their family member or friend won't be forgotten, even when they're gone themselves."

"But the Groupmind would have the morph's memories regardless," Khan said.

"Having the big scary supercomputer remembering them isn't the same thing, and you know it," Anna countered.

"I will acquiesce to your superior knowledge of human psychology," Khan allowed. "But that brings us back to the other issue. What is to be done with potentially millions of morphs without a Designated Focus?"

"Seven Seas and other LARPS are never going to run out of spots for spear carriers," Anna said. "Hire 'em for that."

"Some would be unsuitable, and most of the necessary NPC positions are already filled," Khan told her. "What else could be done with them? Placing them in long term storage would raise the same concerns the humans had over recycling them."

"Well, why don't you let them find that out for themselves?" Anna asked.

Khan frowned again. "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said," Anna told Khan. "Leave them to their own devices, and see what they do. Sure, a lot of them might just help around the house, but some might strike out on their own."

The great tigermorph's frown deepened. "Morphs were made to serve," he said. "They aren't meant to run around undirected. We don't know what they would do."

"So?" Anna asked. "The only way you can find out what would happen would be to run the experiment. I mean, it isn't like they can break their primary programming against harming humans. That's hardwired in."

"What if they decide they don't want to serve humans anymore?" Khan asked. "Do you seriously want a seperate society of morphs living on the Ring?"

"I think the Groupmind could use a little competition, to shake up its assumptions," Anna said.

The Great and Powerful Khan shook his head. "You are a veritable font of dangerous ideas, my pet."

Anna smiled, and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling into his thick fur. "You love me for it," she said.

Khan's arms wrapped around hers in turn, squeezing her tight. "Always, my love."

“Mmm, Master,” Anna purred, wrapping her arms around the Great and Powerful Khan's stomach, as he looked out over patio, to the grand view of the Ocean of Isles. For the past year and a half the scenario they'd been playing had been “Pirates and Princesses,” with her as the captive princess, and Khan (naturally) as the pirate. Better, not all the opponents his fleet had been hunting had been merely morph extras conjured up for her amusement. Several ships of the Fleet of the Isles had been manned by mixed human and morph crews, participating in a LARP of grand proportions. Some of the captives from those ships had even become part of Khan's sub-harems, at least temporarily.

“Anna,” he murmured, the rumble of his voice making her body shiver, as she pressed it against his broad, sun warmed back. “We may need to shut this down soon.”

( Khan pushes some limits. Just not Anna's )

Squares: Speech Control
Warnings: None
Tags: M/f, Quisling and Khan, bondage, speech control

"Time for a new game," the Great And Powerful Khan purred, stroking a paw through Anna's hair slowly.

Anna smiled, rubbing her cheek against the huge tigermorph's furred chest as they reclined together on his couch in the palace throne room. "Mmm, what kind of game, oh Master?" Having run through most of the scenarios she'd created for him from her past works, Khan seemed to have been stretching his metaphorical wings lately, giving a lie to his repeated insistence that the Groupmind morph was unable to truly create. Or maybe he'd just been pulling from a wider set of references.

"It's a surprise."

( And she loves surprises )

Summary: Much better sales this month. I'm still a believer in the Christmas Bump, as I managed to get five sales alone on Christmas Day. Adding in the total year's sales from Smashwords and I've easily topped five hundred dollars in pre-tax profit. That's a first in the three years or so that I've been selling my stories online.

Things to Do: Before Spring comes, I'm going to finish Shadow of Her Sins. My goal after that is two write a couple of more stories in the pre-Ring era of For Your Safety and release an anthology, then perhaps a second one focusing on life on the Ring, or perhaps just a smut book with Quisling and Khan.

Beyond that, I've got an opening to Legacy of the Red Vixen that badly needs revising. In 2013 I only published Mimsey's Tale and I Fought the Claw... and I'm hoping to improve on that. If I can get a few more stories published, and sales remain consistent, this whole operation is going to become a significant part of my income.



Sales Report:


Captive of the Red Vixen: 4

For Your Safety: 13

Good Landing: 10 *

I Fought the Claw & the Claw Won: 5 (1 CA)

Mimsey’s Tale: 12

Prisoners of War: 3 (1 IT)

Shadow of the Red Vixen: 7 (1 CA)

Teal's Bargain: 1 (1 CA)

Teal's War: 1 (1 CA)

Teal's Choice: 1 (1 CA)


Total Paid Sales: 47

For ankewehner: Communication

* * *

Khan had read to her for over an hour. Then he shifted position, laying her head on his lap as she stretched out, still blindfolded, on the couch.

“You know what's hilarious, Master?” she asked.

“Tell me.”

“Even blindfolded, I'll bet you must be wearing a pair of reading glasses, and had a book in your hand, even though you know it by heart.”

“Correct.”

“Why?”

“A proper presentation assures attention, and certainty the words are comprehended.” His paw pressed down over her mouth. “Do you understand?”

“Mmm.”

“Sorry, what was that?”

So while I've no interest in doing an actual 50k piece of writing this year, I am going to try to at least set the month of November aside to write something every day. I'm shooting small this time, between one hundred and five hundred words a day. The question is what. Major choices are starting the second half of my 365 Days of Drabbles project, or working more on Shadow of Her Sins. Alternatively I might try to put together coherent narratives for Sci-Fi Cinderella or Dragon Mom/Happily Ever After, which came of the first half the Drabble project. Or I might just work on a new piece of smut set in FYS focusing on Quisling and Khan.

Opinions?

[Poll #1940950]

Quisling gets what she wants, and Khan gets what he might not know he needs.


Khan her morph/lover/master, looked at, his fingers curling in her hair. “You should know better than to go down this path,” he breathed. “Not all the stories you wrote ended happily.”

“I trust you,” she replied, feeling the silk ropes rub against her wrists, imagining the marks they would leave after a time.

“Beyond all reason,” he said.

“So I get results beyond my dreams.” She mewled softly as Khan released his grip on her hair and took a step back.

“Wait here exactly one minute,” he ordered. “Then follow, if that is your wish.” He turned and strode off, disappearing into the darkness.

( Lead her not unto temptation, she can find it herself )

For ankewehner: “Something sensual involving light touches.”

Still goingwith Quisling and Khan.

( If this keeps up, I'm going to need a new icon for them. ;p )

For rix_scaedu: “Champagne and caviar”>

* * *

“You built this whole thing, just to have an excuse to wear a tux, didn’t you?” she asked, arm in arm with Khan as he walked her towards the ballroom. And for a nearly two meter tall tigermorph, he looked good in it.

“No, I built it for you. There about thirty-four thousand aspects of Me wearing tuxes at the moment, actually.”

“Sure, take the romance out of it.”

“Never.”

He led her out onto the dance floor, while a band played a slow dance version of Puttin’ on the Ritz. Around them, ‘morphs danced, for backdrop, though several did have pet humans with them.

“So why?”

“To please you.”

“You have been pleasing me, quite vigorously.”

He twirled her about easily, like a puppet on a string. Or pet on a leash, in her case. “Physicality is only one aspect of pleasure. The human mind craves variety.”

“I was not getting bored.”

“I wanted to change the scene, before you did.”

“You worry too much.”

“It’s my job.” His broad paw stroked down her spine. “I love you.”

She rested her cheek on his chest, swaying to the music. “I know.”

His grip tightened, and she began to purr.