The Journal Entries

"Hi, honey, I'm home!"

"I'm sorry, Ken, but your cabin is empty," Lance announced in his calm and even tone. I sighed and tossed my PADD onto a chair, walking into the kitchen and pouring myself a glass of milk. I'd been on a milk binge recently, and I wasn't sure why. It would pass.

"Oh, well," I said to the AI. "Lance, can you tell me when they'll be getting home?"

"P'nyssa is on her way. Aaden has stopped by Viewport and will probably be there for quite a while, considering the number of people he is associating with right now. Your children are presently attending a play."

"Thank you," I replied, following it with less of a sigh than a simple exhalation of frustration. I waited quietly for P'nyssa. After a few minutes, she arrived, the doors opening to let her in. "Hi!" I said.

She smiled and skipped over to me, giving me a hug and kiss. "Hi yourself," she said brightly. "How was your day?"

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked, ignoring hers in the process. "Is it just me, or has Aaden been a real jerk recently?"

"So you've noticed it to, then?" she asked. "I don't think it's just you. He has been rather annoying the past couple of weeks."

"Any idea why?" I asked.

"Actually, yes. I talked to Aramo about it, even. I've got a very clear idea why," she replied. "The longest Aaden has ever been on a starship is six months, and that was during our rescue. He hates space travel, but he's officially the reason this mission is going. He asked for this. So here we are, a year into the mission, and he's just starting to realize that, even before he gets to do his job, we have three times as much time left to go, with very few shore leaves in between. He's feeling very pressured, and I'm not surprised.

"Combine that with his reputation, and with the quality of people on this mission. There are twelve hundred people on this ship. The Alanailen party you two and Kathy threw was incredibly successful, Ken. The people on board are adventurous... they'd better be, they're spacefen. You and Aaden are very good at presenting sadomasochism as a form of self-adventure, and some of the people on board now seem to see the link between the two. Aaden has a reputation as a successful sadist and as an excellent master. And he's available. You're rather vocal in your wish to be selective, and it's kind of obvious that you have your hands full right now. Aaden seems to be free."

I started to get the picture. "He's compensating."

"Exactly," she said. "He's afraid, he feels claustrophobic and, even with you and me here, he feels alone. He's overblowing his ego as 'Mister Big S/m Top,' and he's got the skill to pull it off. He deserves most of his reputation. He's just getting a swelled head about it. He's got a small contingent of people looking to him for advice and for a very personal kind of adventure, and suddenly he feels the importance he's always had, and he's not handling it well. Sometimes you don't handle fen very well either, Ken."

I nodded. "So," I said, sitting down at the kitchen counter and propping my chin up in my palm, "what can we do about it?"

"I don't know," she said, with a slight smile. "Wait it out is a typical suggestion. Do you remember when you observed that having a regular lover made sex less important? That you knew that he, and I, and you, would all be here tomorrow, and maybe it's okay to put off lovemaking for today?" I nodded. "Maybe he's doing a bit of that. Aaden's not an idiot, eventually he'll come back to us and realize how stupid he's been. An alternative, and one only you could pull off, Ken, is to do a scene with him at your next Alanailen party."

"What do you mean?"

She leaned over and explained. She must have seen the smile on my face when she was done. "Nyss... you're getting good at this."

She kissed my cheek. I turned my head and kissed her lips in return; the kiss lasted longer that way. Then she laughed softly and said "It's the environment."

---

"So I can rely on you to help me?"

"You're sure he won't hate me afterwards? I mean, because I'm..."

"He'd better not. It's my damn scene. I dictate what happens."

"Then I'll be there. If she lets me."

"I'll let you."

"Then I'll be there."

"Good."

---

The decor was ridiculous. Someone in the llerkindi contingent and someone from David's crew had similar interests in similar periods of history for their homeworlds... the age of high-seas piracy. The llerkindi was characterized by bright colors, flowing cloth, and mirrors, the Terran by the damned parrot. Both cultures used death symbols on flags and sails, although the llerkindi symbol was more stylized than the skull and crossbones.

Someone had gone through a great deal of trouble to make an authentic "pirate" bar, although the llerkindi elements were more befitting what I would perceive as a first-millennial Arabian setting. That's just my culture showing.

Still, as an Alanailen party, it was going pretty well. The music was rhythmic but not painfully loud, the play so far was pretty light and the atmosphere, although a little weird (who am I to judge?) was definitely fitting. Not to mention that I'd forgotten how much I loved full blouse sleeved pirate shirts.

"Aaden!" I said over the music, closing in on him. He was sitting by the bar, a mug of some orange fruit juice by his hand.

"Ken!" He replied, stepping forward and giving me a hug. "Hi! Glad you could make it!"

"Are you kidding?" I said. "I wouldn't miss my own kind of thing for the world. I'm glad you made it." I had a channel open in my head to Lance; he was giving me a reasonable local awareness of my co-conspirators as they, too, closed in on our location. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can ask me a question, Ken."

"Are you ever going to bottom to me again?"

He blinked, looked away abashedly, then looked back. "I will. I want to, I just don't seem to have the... I don't know."

"But you want to bottom to me," I replied.

"Yeah."

"Soon?"

"Sure," he smiled, looking enthused.

I consulted the map in my head; there were four mels now local to me. I turned around to one sitting at the round, wooden table by the bar, tapped his shoulder and said, "Good. Take him."

There was a brief flurry of activity as the four people near me rose up and grabbed him, mostly by the arms; I heard chairs slide around and tables get pushed out of the way. I had my back to him as it happened, and there was a fast stab of pain at the back of my head. He had grabbed my hair!

I turned to him; my hair is long enough for that. "Let go," I said, glancing at the four mels holding him. Two looked concerned; the other two had smiles. "Let go," I repeated, snarling helpfully.

"I said 'soon,'" Aaden hissed. "Not now."

"Let go of my hair," I growled. "I'll lose the hair before I lose to you. Now let go." I think I convinced him; I felt completely sure that my will was stronger. I was ready to lose my hair, which is a personal treasure to me, before I let him squirm out of this scene.

He let go slowly, taking his arm back. "That table," I said, pointing the square one apart from the rest. "Put him over it, now." The four mels hauled him to the table and threw him down on top of it; although he struggled, it wasn't doing him much good as we fixed leather shackles to his wrists and tied them down to the legs of the table. Ropes were fixed around his thighs, and then these were tied to the other legs, spreading them apart. His furry sheath and testicles hung down marvelously between them, and I ran my hand casually over those small, soft eggs, squeezing them gently.

I reached out to one of the mels, and he handed me what I had prepared earlier; a basic riding crop. "You know, Aaden," I said gently, "You've been a real asshole recently." He whimpered softly. "And I'm tired of it." The music slowly died down; people were paying attention. Although when he's top and I'm bottom, I like doing public scenes, the other way around is usually much more private. People very rarely see me in the role of dominant. So there was a lot attention suddenly.

"You've ignored me, you've ignored P'nyssa," I said. I slammed the riding crop down hard on his upper back. He started, rattling the table. "And I'm not going to take it anymore." I hit him again.

"Ken!" he snarled. "Please!"

"Please WHAT?" I asked him, walking around to the front of the table and kneeling to look in his eye. "Who said this had to be erotic? Who said you had to enjoy yourself?" I stood up. "Now shut up and Take. What. I. Give. You!" I growled, emphasizing every last word with a noisy, painful strike of the riding crop.

"Your clothes are in the way. Knife," I said, pointing to one of the people I'd asked to help me. A small, beautiful leaf of a blade was soon in my hand, a maneuver Aaden must have appreciated since he knows had afraid I am of knives. "So I'm going to cut them off." He whimpered. "Don't move, or I'll make a mistake." Cutting the soft silken cloth off of his torso and legs wasn't difficult, although he did tremble a lot as I did so. "There," I said. "That's better."

I walked around behind him, ran my hands over his now-naked ass, and then dropped two slashing strikes to each calf. He moaned, throwing himself at the limits of his restraints.

"Stop squirming!" I barked. Two more to his thighs. "Okay, that's it," I said. "Blindfold and collar him."

"No..." he whimpered pitifully. I hit him on the shoulder, a powerful triple-tap. "Shut up," I said.

I have to admit, he looked really cute tied up like that. And I hadn't drawn blood yet, which was something I have to watch out for, since I can't actually see his fell through his thick fur. "You know, my favorite skunk love, I was going through my old diaries and journals, and I noticed a few things. I still owe you, dear, I owe you lots. I never did get back at you for that first scene, back at Michael's Underground." I turned to make sure the one person I most needed for this scene, other than Aaden of course, was really here. "I know what you hate, Aaden. And I know what you fear." I smiled, then snapped my fingers. "Rope."

A length of rope was placed in my hands by a tall, smiling Felinzi. I reached down in front of Aaden's throat and threaded the rope through a small D-ring. I pulled his huge, bushy tail up and out of the way, making access to his anus much easier to reach, tied three loops of rope around it and secure the two ends of the rope together with a half-hitch knot and panic loop.

The four mels who had helped me secure him in the first place now slid a wide, square platform up behind Aaden, and then he whimpered loudly as he felt two broad, feline feet land to each side of his shoulders. Then he felt the warm, broad body lay against his back. He whimpered louder, crying almost. "We all have our fears, Aaden."

"Not a 'taur," he whispered. "Please, Ken, not a 'taur."

"It's only a Ssphynx, Aaden," I replied. I looked down under the length of their bodies. "Where it counts, a small one even. It's not like I asked full-sized Centaur." I chuckled.

"Please, no."

"Give me a good reason," I demanded.

"They're so... big, and... powerful. Please, Ken, it's too much, he's going to be too much." Although I couldn't see them, I knew there were tears behind that blindfold.

I looked down at him, grabbed his muzzle and pulled up roughly. Even blindfolded, he had to know I was staring at him. "You listen, and you listen good. I take 'taurs all the time. You're just weak, Aaden."

"I am not!" He shouted. "I have..."

"You have what?" I snarled. "That's it," I said, looking up at Ssphynx. "You," I said, pointing to the Felinzi male who had handed me the rope and the knife, now standing at the other end of the table, "do the aiming. And you," I said to the Ssphynx, "Take him."

The Felinzi reached underneath the Ssphynx, and there was a moment of silence. The Ssphynx backed up slightly, and then with cautious thrust pushed into Aaden. Aaden bucked, thrashing and screaming. "Were you... unready, Aaden?" I chided him. "That's quite a bludgeon you've got inside you."

"It hurts," he moaned. "Please, Ken, take him out. Order him out."

"Order him out?" I asked loudly, dropping to me knees until I was a cent from his nose. "Are you going to make it?" I whispered, concerned. "You have a safeword, you know."

"I don't... I don't know..." he said. "It's not... not too far. I've taken more," he whispered back. "This is just so... unlike you."

I stood up and smiled, smoothing the fur on the top of his head. "Benefit of good training," I said, returning to a volume the audience could hear. "Fuck him harder," I said to the Ssphynx.

I slid a hand under his throat, feeling the table move with each thrust, feeling his howls and moans slide past underneath my palm, feeling his heart beat faster and his veins pulse harder. Feeling his body react to the obscene, indignant violation. I smiled, and tapped the Ssphynx on the forepaw. "Hold up," I said.

"Aaden," I smiled, "You are in a public space, tied down naked with 80 people staring at you." He moaned softly. "A Ssphynx is perched above and fills your asshole. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Your Ssphynx friend is female, and wearing a dildo."

He raised his head slowly, as if to stare at me through the leather blind, and shook it, stunned. All he could manage was a whisper, "No..."

"Yes!" Trianna growled, bucking her haunches once to drive the dildo deeper into Aaden's tortured guts. He howled and threw himself about with such force the oaken table creaked under his efforts.

"That's right, Aaden," I snarled, grabbing his jaw again. "You're getting fucked by a fem, dear, and for her pleasure. Like I said, you don't have to like it, you just have to take it."

"Please... Ken... "

"Uh-uh," I said. "Trianna, put him in his place."

"No!" he shouted hoarsely, screaming and shaking the walls as Trianna put her hips into it, fucking his ass mercilessly. This went on for a while; I stood back to appreciate the sight of her soft, feminine body, outlined in grey and yellow fur, bucking against his very solid and masculine one, his skunk's pattern of black and white fur waving back and forth with every stroke. Around her hips were the black straps of the harness, and from the sides I could see the dildo dangling from it and sliding between his solid, furry buttocks. I wished for photographs. They were beautiful together.

I tapped Trianna on the paw again. "Out," I said simply, smiling at her. She nodded, grinning back, and slid out of him. Aaden shuddered as the dildo slid out and dropped down. I smiled and stepped into place behind his trembling body, slowly pulling the zipper down on my pants and tugging out my own erection. With enough lubricant from Trianna's dildo already coating his entire butt and matting down his fur, I had no trouble sliding into him. He whimpered gently, but I stretched out over him and whispered, "It's okay, lover... It's just me."

He nodded briefly, whimpering softly as I fucked him; his asshole was already quite stretched out from Trianna's dildo, and I wasn't getting much friction. But for both of us, being on the receiving end of one another is strictly pleasure. I wasn't going to lose my hardness, and he wasn't going to tell me to stop. I looked down to see my cock sliding into his hole, my hips getting as slick as his cheeks with the overdose of lubricant sliding between us. He was wonderfully warm, wonderfully sweet.

I was surprised that my orgasm came at all, but there it was. Growing within me, alive and awake. I was a little angry at him still, and I think even that fed my growing climax. I grasped his hips and began slamming him hard; the audience seemed to fade into the background, going further and further away until finally I buried my cock inside him and I came, feeling not just my sex but my entire body pulse in time with him, his fears and his heartbeat. I sighed gently, laying down atop him and holding him, wrapping my arms around him.

From lying atop him, I looked up at one of the many people watching and said, "Untie him."

People moved in from all angles to do as I had asked; it took less than a minute for him to be free. I stood up, feeling my cock slide out of him; I put it back in my pants and pulled up the zipper, pretending as if nothing had just happened. He was lying atop the table, unmoving.

It was almost over. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hauled him viciously off the table, dropping him to his knees on the floor in front of me. He seemed barely able to move. "Kiss my boot, Aaden," I said helpfully.

He was still unmoving. I slammed two painful strikes against his ass, then pressed the tip of the crop to the back of his neck and growled, "Kiss my boot, Aaden, or so help me I'll give you a reason to fear." I shoved one forward under his nose.

He moved, then, slowly leaning forward. His thick, pink tongue reached out from his muzzle to slide along the toe of my boot, cleaning the hard black leather with his spit. He seemed to get into it, wrapping his arms around my legs; I had to grab the table for balance as he leaned over and worshipped at my feet, kissing and licking my boots. I smiled and pressed my boot forward, under his chin, and lifted his face to look at me. With a smile I reached down and pulled off the blindfold. He looked up at me; there was wetness staining the lambswool within the blindfold, and more on the fur about his eyes. "Thank me," I said gently.

His muzzle moved to form the words "Thank you," but no sounds came out.

"Thank me correctly," I said. This was the end of the scene, and my voice lost it's 'toppish' quality. I was just me again.

He found his voice then. "What more do you want?" he asked, reaching up and grabbing for my belt; I let him pull me to the ground, into his lap. "Oh, Ken, thank you so much. Thank you so much; I love you so much." I wrapped my arms around him as he began laughing and crying at the same time. He was no longer my submissive, no longer my bottom... he was just my friend, my lover. I held him tight until he got most of the crying out of his system, then slowly stood up, reaching down a hand to help him up as well. He took it, and together we pulled him into a standing position. I gave him a hug, and then we turned to face the people watching us.

A completely spontaneous explosion of applause broke out, a seemingly honest expression of admiration and respect for what we had just done. I beamed a wide smile, and so did Aaden; then he seemed to lose balance, and sagged back to sit on the table. "Trianna! Get me some water."

She responded quickly, and I pressed the flagon into his hands. He downed it quickly, and from a large wooden pitcher Trianna refilled it. He half-drained that one too, then looked up me, water dripping off his muzzle. "You look silly, lover," I said.

He laughed. "No thanks to you," he said. "You've got lube all over your silks," he said, touching my shirt.

"Oh, well... they needed to be cleaned anyway."

Kathy had been one of the many observers, obviously as we'd been using "her little girl" as one of the major props in tonight's scene. She walked over and said "That was incredible."

"Thank you," I said, reaching out to beep her nose playfully. For some reason, that seemed to have become the gesture of affection on board.

"It really was. But, uhm, Aaden? Are you up for something?"

"Depends. What is it?"

"Think you can give Trianna a hug?" she asked, leaning in quietly to whisper, "And when you've got her, don't let go."

He nodded. "I think I can do that. Gimme a few minutes, though?"

She smiled "Thanks."

"Just let me recover some more," he said, finishing off the water he had and holding his flagon out for a refill, which Trianna carefully gave him.

"Trianna," I said after a time when I thought Aaden looked good enough to go on, "Come here."

"Yes, Master," she addressed me correctly.

"Give Aaden a hug, and thank him for the evening."

She smiled wide and reached out her arms. Aaden hopped off the table to wrap his muscular arms around her, locked his wrists together behind her humanoid half and held her in place. "Don't move, child," Kathy snarled gently in her ear.

"D... Daddy?"

Kathy ran her hand gently down Tria's humanoid back, then along the more animal 'taur half until she reached her croup, stroking her tail softly. People were pointing at them, noticing that something had started up again by our table. "You made a mistake, Trianna. Ken told you to be silent for the scene."

"I... I thought..."

"Yes, Trianna?"

"I thought that was so he wouldn't know it was me."

I chuckled darkly and answered her unspoken question. "It was so he wouldn't know it was a female. But your order was to stay silent through the whole thing unless told otherwise. Ken didn't say you could speak after he knew who you were."

Kathy continued, "You made a mistake. And mistakes need to be punished."

"Yes... Daddy."

Kathy reached up to scratch her gently between her ears. "You're learning. Now then, Trianna, you've only been my child for four weeks now. So we're going to be gentle tonight. Two punishments. Are you ready to hear them?"

She didn't turn to look, which was good. She just nodded silently, then said, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Your first punishment is that you will take ten swats from me, right here, and right now. That is why Aaden is holding you." She walked around behind Tria and took careful aim at her croup, then brought the riding crop down with all the strength she could muster. Tria yelped.

She took each blow slowly, carefully, and very forcefully. I guess she wanted Tria to absorb each one, to feel each one; a common enough rhythm of punishment. By her fourth Trianna's four feet were prancing with pain and avoidance. By the sixth she was openly sobbing, and by the tenth she couldn't help her screaming.

Kathy straddled her body from behind, tapping Aaden on the shoulder to give her room; he backed away. She held her up, nuzzling her soft ears and kissing the back of her neck. "Good girl," she whispered softly. "You took your punishment like a good girl."

"D... Daddy?" she moaned back softly.

"Yes, Trianna?"

"What is my second punishment, Daddy?"

"There is no second punishment, Trianna. I've decided one is enough tonight."

"Thank you, thank you, Daddy," she said, nuzzling Kathy as she said it.

"To home with you, then, Trianna. I'll see you when I get there." Kathy got off of Trianna's back and swatted her behind with her hand. "Go."

She nodded, walking slowly and with head bowed out the door.

Aaden whistled low. "You've only been with her four weeks? Wow. I'm impressed."

Kathy nodded. "She a remarkable person. It's rare I meet someone as tough as she is. Or as fragile."

Aaden nodded, wrapping his arms around me as he talked. "I know I was never that strong, in the beginning." He laid his muzzle on my shoulder and sighed, "I love you, Ken. Thank you."

"Promise you won't ignore me quite so much?"

"I promise," he said softly. Then his paw slid up under my hair and closed. Not enough to make me fall to a kneel, but enough to remind me of which the energy in our relationship usually flowed. "Next time, though..." he growled gently, letting go.

I laughed. "Next time, lover."