Another few weeks of me going radio silent. It’s just being rough. I have to find a surgeon because of the tumors in my neck (okay I’ve found him. It’s finding time to deal that’s the issue)

I’m continuing on with Kaleo’s story. Shyroth is taking him to a function and Kaleo is distrustful of all of this and is using a bondage collar as his litmus test as to Aneirin’s true intentions

“It’s neither casual nor fancy so pick one of the outfits from the middle range.”

“Want me to wear the collar with your charm on it?” Kaleo asked, feeling all the safety of the day before trickling away from him. Anyone could use a toy. Even if Shyroth behaved himself, someone else could put their hands on him.

“No, I do not,” Shyroth replied but for the first time, Kaleo didn’t believe him. He saw the subtle dilation of Shyroth’s pupils and the little hitch in his breathing.

The man liked the collar. He’d file that away. Kaleo had been right about the man being a perv, regardless of what he pretended, but on the other hand, he was a horrible liar. Kaleo had seen right through him. Most slum mutts learned to lie easily. Oh there were some like Xander who were awful, but they weren’t the norm. Xander, with his pre-colony name and sensitive ways, would have been dead long ago if not for the gang Kaleo ran with. He was a sweet, stupid kid. Like he told Shyroth there was always that one dumb friend, and Xander was it. Shyroth lied almost as badly as Xander. Kaleo could prove it if he put that collar on.

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I’m just jumping right into the snippet, no preamble picking up from last week. CW – discussions of sexual abuse. Picking up from Kaleo telling Aneirin he expects Aneirin to hurt him

Shyroth spun the chair out of his grasp so he could look Kaleo square in the face. “Not every master hurts their Toys.”

Kaleo curled his lip at him. “Are you sure of that? I can tell you in detail what they trained me to expect.”

Aneirin narrowed his eyes into cool, blue slits. “I am sure, as I’m sure there are those exactly as you expected. And you will tell me those details, just not today.”

“I’m sorry. You’re busy trying to save the world.” Kaleo winced. He had meant it jokingly but it sounded bitchy. “I didn’t mean…”

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I am struggling to find time in my weekends. Hell I don’t even know how we’re more than halfway through this hellscape of a year.

Ah well back into the SF story. Aneirin and Kaleo are getting to know each other. Aneirin has just explained part of his job as a geneticist and his charity work, surprising Kaleo.

Content Warning: references to sexual abuse

“Wow…I don’t know what to say to that. I guess I didn’t think that my master would be like this but you didn’t exactly buy me.” Kaleo wasn’t sure he could mesh his preconceived ideas with this reality. If any of this was true, Shyroth was a better man than any Kaleo had ever known. He hadn’t been prepared for that. Hell, he didn’t know how to handle that.

“I’m not sure I want to know what you were expecting.”

Kaleo gripped the top of Shyroth’s chair until his knuckles went white. “They trained us to take more humiliations than I imagined could have existed. I never considered myself naïve, not being a slum mutt but I didn’t know there were that many sexual fetishes. I was expecting a cruel man. I didn’t know what else my master would be, but I knew he’d enjoy hurting me.”

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Took another unexpected two week absence from the snippets. Well one I could have predicted as I was at a work conference two weeks ago. It went well (but I’ve yet to write any of the people I wanted to. Sigh. Need to get on that) My presentation at the con went well.

But I also got rampagingly ill with bronchitis and that took me out for the next week but I’m back with more of Aneirin and Kaleo’s story. Kaleo is in Aneirin’s home lab, trying to get to know them.

“What are you doing?” He leaned against the back of Shyroth’s chair to see what his reaction would be. Nothing as it turned out. It made Kaleo nervous. What if he couldn’t interest Shyroth at all? He wasn’t convinced that he could stay without providing something and his body was the only thing he had to provide. What if it wasn’t enough? He should sneak a knife away from the dinner table if he could. Kaleo was excellent with knives, not that much skill was needed to end his own life.

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Making this brief again. I’m heading to Pittsburgh for a work conference that I will be presenting (very briefly) my sabbatical research so that’s exciting. I hope to get some good ideas to take back to the lab as well.

Speaking of labs, Kaleo is now free to wander Aneirin’s home and he finds him in the home lab.

As he wandered around, a new drink in hand – something he couldn’t even pronounce that Danil had pointed him to – Kaleo noticed the home office door was open, and Shyroth was in there talking to someone. He didn’t see anyone but he was fascinated by the holographs bouncing around the room that Aneirin could interact with. He was flinging things back and forth, brightly colored things that didn’t really exist. Was the man babbling to himself?

Kaleo tapped on the door, “Dr. Shyroth.”

Shyroth spun around, nearly falling off his stool. “Oh, Kaleo. Is something wrong?”

“Just wandering around. I thought I heard you talking to someone.”

Shyroth ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “No, just talking to myself. It helps me to think through a problem.”

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