0 - 0 - 9 - 20:34 - Skylar

“I love this article!” Editor Sam shouted. “I love this Princess. This is the best story to hit the news ever. We’re going to make a mint!”

“She was an incredible speaker - so charismatic,” Skylar said smiling. “I think that she’s going to change Joppa for the better. People are going to listen to her. They are going to be inspired by her. They already are!”

“What do you mean?” Editor Sam asked, putting down his cup of coffee.

“This morning I passed by the church where the former Holy Mother… you know, Vatica...  has been imprisoned. There is actually a line of people bringing food and items of comfort to pass through the small window to the anchorhold where she is imprisoned. Things that Vatica does not need, she passes back out the window. The food she doesn’t eat is being used to feed the less fortunate. I can’t believe that just yesterday she was considered a worthless criminal. Now she is almost being treated like a living martyred saint.”

“Do you think it will last?” Editor Sam asked.

“I don’t know, but here is a second article I wrote about the scene there this morning,” Skylar said passing a piece of parchment to the editor.

“That’s my boy,” he said, smiling. “Such instinct!”

“The Princess is just totally awesome!” Skylar said, looking as though imagining a happy future.

“Wow!” Editor Sam said, watching Skylar. “The Princess must be totally hot - the way you are fawning over her. What’s her best feature?”

“I don’t know. She was just awesome - the confidence in her voice.”

“No!” Editor Sam said. “What’s her best feature? Like… Does she have big boobs?”

“Oh, you mean did she look good?” Skylar asked. “Well, she was thin, but not starved or stunted like a lot of those desert people. She is obviously very healthy…”

“Her boobs! How were her boobs?”

“They were good. You know, she was wearing robes, so…”

“Nice ass? Did she have nice curves?”

“Like I was saying,” Skylar continued. “She was tall and thin and had very symmetrical facial features. She was wearing a long emerald green robe and a headdress over long brunette hair.”

“So, Skylar, what are you? A boob man? An ass man?” Editor Sam asked.

“All of the Princess was hot. I liked all of her,” Skylar said frowning slightly. “The total package.”

“Oh, yeah! Boobs, ass, and legs! Awesome!”


0 - 0 - 9 - 21:41 - Joliette

Joliette slowly regained consciousness. Her entire body was in pain, crumpled against the bars of her small cell-within-a-cell. She was shivering. Something reeked and she feared that is was she. Everything was blurry. She occasionally saw movement around the periphery of her cage. She heard voices but was too tired to answer them. Her face was in pain. She closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, there was someone in the outer cage reaching through the bars and touching her forehead. The hand was cold and hard, and she flinched a little. There was a strange face before her - not human. She did not hear any breathing, but rather whirs and clicks.

“Shhh…,” the creature said, “Joliette, I just need to look at your wound.”

There was a tearing sound and Joliette’s face felt as though it was being freshly ripped open again. She felt something cold and hard press against her lips, pushing past her teeth. Joliette opened her eyes and realized that the creature was pushing a finger into her mouth.

“Hmm…” the female voice said. “You have a fever.”

Joliette groaned.

Later she could feel something pulling at her robes. She began to shiver again despite waves of heat blowing against her bare skin occasionally.

She was naked and a moist cloth was being pressed between her legs. She was being washed.

There was a sharp pain in her arm and Joliette opened her eyes again.

“There you are,” the metal face said to her quietly. “Despite what you see and hear and feel, you will survive this - no problem. You’ll be good as new by the time I’m back to fit you next week.”

Joliette closed her eyes and fell asleep.

<>--+-

There was some sort of disturbance outside her cage. Joliette opened her eyes. Some collection of people were standing around her cage. Madam McNear was there. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when she felt the pain in her face and realized that she did not want to speak.

The metal woman was no longer in the outer cage.

Morgana, the Queen’s witch, was standing out there. She was talking to her father - Nobleman Justice - and his fat daughter - Julienne. A number of large men walked up to the daughter and grabbed her by the wrists and she began to scream.

McNear had a big knife in her hand. She was staring into Joliette’s cage - staring at her wounded face.

“It looks to start about a half knuckle above the corner of her mouth,” her father was saying to McNear. “All the way to about a knuckle in from her ear lobe.”

There was a flash of the blade and her fat sister was trying to struggle. The large men had too good of a hold on her. McNear drew the blade across Joliette’s sister’s face. Blood began to stream onto the floor. There was a desperate murmuring sound.

Morgana seemed to be assuring Nobleman Justice that he would be suitably compensated for a second daughter.


0 - 0 - 10 - 07:48 - Maisie

It had been another long day of sessions of exercise on the climbing and running machines broken up by a session of slow sexual stimulation with Tongue. Of course, Maisie was never allowed to see anything that she was doing anymore due to the hood that they made her wear whenever she was not in the cell that she shared with Piper. She could barely hear anything as well. And the only time she was able to say anything was when they loosened chin guard of the hood enough to shove a tube for feeding in her mouth. No one ever acknowledged, much less answered her pleas for information.

At the end of the day, though, she was released back into the cell with Piper. The harness and tether held her so that she could only make it to their shared bed. It was quite a relief to be able to remove the hood although the tongue piercing and its attached chain still garbled Maisie’s words.

“I see some definition in your arm muscles,” Maisie said as Piper spread gel across Maisie’s freshly shaved head.

“Hmm mm,” (2 words) Maisie responded. “... mmm mmm…” (11 words)

“Maybe they are going to throw us in the arena and watch us fight like gladiators. Maybe they are building us up to be participants with the Dirt Room Girls… Regardless, I feel stronger, and I hope that they keep this routine up.”

Piper placed her fingers to her ear. This was the signal that she used to indicate that she was receiving instructions.

“... mmm mmm...,” (10 words) Piper said.

“Interpret something that you said yesterday? You said lots of things yesterday…”

Suddenly, a voice filled the room - beautiful, melodic and very familiar.

“That’s you,” Maisie said, smiling at Piper.

“... mmm mmm...,” (6 words) Piper said, frowning.

“I have no idea what you said,” Maisie replied, then she turned and looked out into the room. “I have no idea what Piper said. It just sounds like singing random sounds - humming.” She turned back to Piper. “Do you have any idea what this is about?”

Piper shook her head, no. “...mmm mmm...” (8 words).

Piper put her fingers up to her ear again. “...mmm mmm...” (16 words).

“Well, you all must be mistaken,” Maisie shouted out into the room. Then she turned back to Piper. “Say, ‘I am a lesbian whore’, Piper, so they can hear what the song sounds like.”

“...mmm mmm...” (5 words) Piper said, looking about the room.

“See? That is how she says it. I’m not sure what you all have recorded.”

The room was silent for a couple of minutes and Piper lay down next to Maisie cuddling close to her. Suddenly Piper’s voice filled the room again.

“...mmm mmm...” (8 words) Piper told Maisie.

“Once again, that was nothing but random humming,” Maisie explained to the room. “Neither Piper nor I have any idea what that was supposed to mean.” She looked at Piper. “They’re fucking idiots.”

Piper was listening to instructions again. “...mmm mmm...” (20 words).

Maisie looked out into the room. “Well, in that case there is something wrong with your fucking recording equipment because what Piper said made sense. And what you played back is random singing. Idiots!”

Maisie lay back in bed wondering though. Piper had been cursed to never be able to communicate ever again. Regardless, Piper was sentient. She could still say things. Things that only Maisie could understand. If Piper had a word for “hello” and she said it often enough, certainly others would be able to understand the sounds that Piper made to say “hello” after a while. But no one ever could learn to interpret any of Piper’s words...


0 - 0 - 10 - 11:07 - Aife

Aife was curled up on the small hard shelf that served as a bed. She was cold and hungry. Twice since Morgana had left her in the dark cell a small hatch opened in the bottom of the door and a small metal tray with acrid water was pushed into the room. With her wrist securely chained to the wall, Aife found that she had to use her foot to pull the tray into the room far enough to be able to lift it to her mouth. Afterwards, she placed the tray underneath the bed. Anything could be used as a weapon.

She awoke with a start. Someone was in the room with her.

“Aife, it’s me. Don’t hit me please!” said a voice.

“Zeigh!” Aife exclaimed and she jumped up from the bed. “Holy mother! How did you find me? I would hug you, but, shit, you really, really stink.”

“It happens,” Zeigh said. “We have to get out of here.”

Aife looked at the door to the cell. It was still sealed shut. And then there was the heavy chain that was locked around her wrist. “I’ve got a bit of a problem. This cuff no longer has a keyhole.”

“Don’t worry,” Zeigh said. “I brought these.”

There was a loud thunking sound.

“I can barely see anything, Zeigh.”

“Oh yeah. They are some heavy duty bolt cutters.”

“Zeigh! I may kiss you despite your odor.”

“OK.”

“Um… Here. Give me the blades.” Aife groped around in the darkness until she touched Zeigh’s naked shoulder, the felt down her arms until she found the handles of the bolt cutters. “Wow, these are really long handles,” she said.

“I wasn’t sure what we would have to cut through,” Zeigh said as she lifted the cutters off the floor with a slight grunt.

Aife reached down until she found the blades of the cutters. She lined them up with a chain link that held captive her wrist cuff. Meanwhile, Zeigh had stepped back and opened the handles of the bolt cutters.

It took Zeigh a bit of effort, but finally there was a loud snap and Aife’s wrist was no longer secured to the wall of her dungeon cell. Aife let out an audible sigh. “Alright. How do we get out of here?”

Aife walked to the door and started to feel around for some sort of latch to open it. “How did you get in here?”

“We can’t walk straight through the castle. We’re naked prisoners,” Zeigh explained. “We need to travel through the ventilation and sewage tunnels.”

Aife turned from the door and felt her way over to the grate where she had been relieving herself since her imprisonment. The metal bars were woven into the stone floor. There was no way to pull the grate up. It took almost an hour for Zeigh and Aife to cut through the bars with the bolt cutters.

“Holy Mother! It reeks in there. How far do we have to travel to get out of here?” Aife asked.

“It’s only a ten minute walk to the western exterior wall of the castle,” Zeigh explained.

“The tunnels are big enough to walk?” Aife asked. “That’s not too bad, I guess.”

“No. we will have to crawl,” Zeigh said and she jumped down into the sludge underneath the cell floor. “Can you hand down the bolt cutters? We’ll likely need them again.”

Aife tenderly climbed through the grating into the darkness of the sewage tunnel. She could hear Zeigh sloshing to her left. She was talking. At first she assumed that she was just being Zeigh, but then, with a start, she realized that someone else was with them.

“Hello?” Aife said coldly, unsure of what was going on.

“Melody cannot speak,” Zeigh said.

“Whose Melody?” Aife asked.

“We were sharing a cell together. I couldn’t just leave her behind. Melody is most likely not her name. I just call her that,” Zeigh said nervously.

“OK. But who is she?”

“Well, at first I thought to call her ‘Metally’ because she is completely covered in all sorts of exotic piercings - kind of like Slave Karma, but way, way, way, way more extreme. In fact, that is why she cannot speak - all of the piercings through her cheeks and tongue. So, I called her Metally, but I found that really hard to say. Metally, metally, metally. See? It’s really hard to say. Be I kept saying it long enough - Metally, metally, metally, medally, melady - and eventually it sort of evolved into Melody. So, then I called her Metally Melody which means her initials are M.M. or Mmm-mmm. Which is fitting because that is all she can say. Mmm-mmm. Her original name is probably neither Metally nor Melody.”

“Alright, alright,” Aife said. “Is she sentient? Is she autonomous?”

“Oh, yes. She is really smart. I think she’s bilingual.”

Aife brought up the rear behind Melody as Zeigh led the way through the ventilation and sewage tunnels. Most of the time they were crawling on their stomachs through dirt and wet sludge. Aife could feel the layers of grime covering her. She tried to keep her hair up but it, too was dragging through the muck.

Most of the time there was no light at all. Every once in a while though, some stray rays filtered through a vent or grate and Aife could see the muck covered body of Melody crawling along in front of her. Her body would almost sparkle as the dim light reflected off the numerous bits of metal embedded in the woman’s skin. Aife could only assume that Melody was covered in piercings - all over. Melody rattled and jingled and clanked as she made her way along.

It took most of the night before Zeigh reported back that they had made it to an exterior wall. Aife revelled in the cool breeze of fresh air blowing through grating.

“We have a small problem,” Zeigh announced.

Aife slithered past Melody, momentarily looking the bedraggled, mute woman in the eyes as she passed to catch up to Zeigh.

“What’s wrong?” Aife asked.

“I can’t open the handles of the bolt cutters wide enough in this crawl space to get a grip on any of these bars on the grate. I can’t cut our way out.”

Aife spent a few minutes proving to herself that Zeigh was correct by manipulating the long handles. By the time the handles were pressed against the top and bottom of the small crawl-space, the teeth of the blades were still not open wide enough to clamp around any of the bars.

“There was a split in the ventilation shaft not far back,” Zeigh said. “Let’s go back, and each take a different path to see if we can find a better way out.”

Aife looked at Zeigh feeling somewhat impressed by her sudden display of leadership skills.

After a moment Zeigh became noticeably nervous. “If that is OK with you, of course, Mistress Aife.”

“Oh, Zeigh,” Aife said. “I’m just impressed with how you’ve handled yourself here.” She patted Zeigh on the shoulder and as she began to crawl back down the shaft. “And I’m not your mistress…”

They backtracked to the first junction, then split up. Zeigh suggested that Melody follow Aife. After a bit more crawling, Aife found another shaft that seemed to head toward the exterior wall. She crawled down it and just as she thought she could see the dim glow of moonlight, something dark covered the grating. Aife heard the strain of metal and a loud popping sound.

“Zeigh?” Aife said.

“Yeah, it’s me!” Zeigh whispered from outside the castle.

“You got out!” Aife exclaimed. “Maybe Melody and I should just go out the same way you did.”

“No! This will be faster,” Zeigh said as she hefted the teeth of the bold cutters into place and snapped a second bar.

Within twenty minutes there was a hole large enough from Aife to tumble through and out into the cool night air. Freedom!

Aife and Zeigh helped Melody out of the hole next.

Aife could not see too much detail with the darkness and muck covering the mute woman. However, the moon was bright enough to give Aife a sense of what their new traveling companion looked like.

“Holy Mother!”