2019-06-01 - spike - The New Shop 117

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 117
Date: 01 June 2019

Chapter 117
I woke with Blank curled, no, snuggled around me. I didn’t know what it was that woke me at first. Then Q’s voice.

“Artemis. Wake up and get up to the rec room.”

I gave the cage door a rattle, it was still locked.

I selected M. “Issue the unlock code for cell one, block one and in there, cage three, M.”

“What? Why? No-one’s in the cages now!”

“We are. I decided after running a marathon it needed a sleep and it’s been without human contact for months. As I needed one too after that, I gave it what you gave me on my first week. It deserved it.”

“Good thought, I’ll head up there now.”

I gave Blank a nudge. “Wake up, Blank.”

It stirred and gripped me a little tighter.

“Wake up, Blank. When the cage unlocks, you need to get down to the wet room for a wash and I bet you really need a drink after all that.”

It began to shake.

“Laughter or sobs, Blank?”

It let go of me and rolled onto its back. A deep breath, it looked at me and signed.

“A little bit of both, sir. Not from misery. I’ve never felt like this before, sir. Relief, happy… Oh god, I feel good.”

“Hold your head up high, Blank. Yes, you’re a slave but that’s not something to be ashamed of. Many men aspire to being slaves and never find a good master who can take them. You can be proud. Feel that pride, Blank. Pride that you’ve earned the respect of everyone. You’ve earned your position as someone my master would be glad to own. Someone he wants.”

“Six months ago I had trouble walking twenty-six yards! I ran a marathon!”

I nodded.

It tapped my crotch. “When do you think, sir?”

“You want your cock locked away?”

“I know master Q doesn’t like his slaves enjoying… that kinda thing, sir. I didn’t have the energy to masturbate before all this. Now I do, I want to avoid it, sir. I want to please him, sir. I want him to be proud of me.”

“The moment this cage unlocks, go to the wetroom. I’ll have Sixteen feed you and put you through your wash. My Master summoned me just before I woke you. I’ll tell him what you’ve asked. I don’t think you’ll get one of these but there are always alternatives. You might need to wait until you’re down another size before this’ll fit.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You understand the commitment? Once chastity goes on, you’ll never be free of it. It’ll only ever come off when you’re frozen and when one of these is applied, it can’t be removed. Just as permanent as the suit.”

“I gave myself to him. I meant it. I’m his, sir and all his rules should apply to me just as much as everyone else. I understand, sir.”

There was a beep and the cage door swung open. I clambered out and held my hand out. It gripped and pulled itself out too. We headed to the elevator.

I hit the panel and selected Sixteen. “Go to block one wet room. Blank’s in serious need of some water and a wash after what it did this morning. It could probably do with an extra dose of food too.”

It nodded. “Thank you, sir. You’re right, I haven’t felt this hungry in weeks.”

“You burned a hell of a lot more than you normally do.”

The elevator opened and I stepped inside, then opened the database and modified the entry for Blank, destination, wet room. It looked at the ceiling, gave me a thumbs up and walked back to the cell block.

I hit the panel and the doors slid closed.

When I stepped out, all the golds were present. I walked over and stepped in front of the screen.

Q smiled down as usual.

“That took longer than I was expecting, Artemis?”

“Yes, sir. The cage needed to be unlocked. We both needed a sleep after that.”

“It really managed that? A marathon?”

“Yes, sir. It’s coming on in leaps and bounds, sir. Now it knows it’s one of us… It’s requested chastity, sir. I know this isn’t practical yet.” I tapped mine. “But it wants to show you it meant what it said, sir. It wants to be bound by the same rules as everyone else. More, sir. It wants you to be proud of it, sir.”

“I’m beginning to like this blank. It’s amazing how much it’s changed in so short a time.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How on earth did it end up running a marathon?”

“I nudged it towards the treadmill. Told it to set the speed for endurance and we ran together, sir. I hoped it might be capable and when it began to struggle, it saw me and pushed itself. I think it wanted to beat me. The moment we hit twenty-six miles, I was done. We staggered over to the bench to sit. It didn’t realise how far until I showed it a few minutes later, sir.”

“Yes, but… What gave you the idea? Why?”

“It’s suffered its entire life from a spiral of self-loathing and destructive comfort eating, probably helped along by being bullied for its weight, sir. Since it knew it was losing weight it gained in self-confidence. When I spoke to it as a blank that first time it had already passed the five mile point when I joined it. It wasn’t the least bit whiny. It was self-assured. More, it liked itself. It said it was getting happier with every pound it lost, sir. I decided it needed a boost not only to its self-confidence but to its self-esteem, sir. It ran that marathon. More, it did all the work to achieve the fitness to run it without the help of anyone. The only thing you told it to do was to push itself, sir. Good god did it push itself.”

“What size is it now?”

“Extra-large, sir.”

“Go to the shop floor. There are chastity shorts in that size and the waist in adjustable so as it continues to lose those inches, the shorts can be adjusted to accommodate. Unbelievable. Two months ago, I would never have considered it worthy to be mine, but now?! I’ll give it something else to boost that self-esteem, Artemis. I didn’t expect them to be required at this stage, but… Usual shelving unit, shelf four, vests.”

“Already, sir? A mark of ownership?”

“Yes, already. It can wear it with pride and if it continues as it has been, I will be proud to own it. A white one, rather than silver of course. If it disappoints later, it’s just as easy to blank again, but you’re right. It does need a boost. Do that now, then return, we have matters to discuss.”

“Yes, sir!” I bolted back to the elevator.

Ten minutes later, I was down in the wet room. I sidled up to it, pointed my fob to blacken its goggles and entered the cubicle. The head tube was still attached so I checked on where in the cycle it was. It only needed a normal soap, water and hot air cycle this time, so it shouldn’t be long before it was removable. I looked at the display and nodded.

Hot air cycle in five minutes. Once the water had stopped flowing I could pause it to do the job.

Time slowed to a crawl as it always does when you’re waiting for something. A watched pot…

Finally, the panel indicated the water had ended, I hit pause, disconnected the head tube as carefully as possible, hopeful blank wouldn’t detect the change, pulled down the vest and reattached it before smoothing the vest and adjusting it so the mark was in the correct position.

I turned it on again, cleared its goggles and ran back to the elevator.

I was back in front of the TV in two wags of a dog’s tail.

Q nodded as I stepped in front of the TV again.“Good. Now, there are a few slaves to be dealt with in the morning. A few more to be sedated and put into permanent suits.”

“They’ve indicated they never want out, sir?”

“Yes, courtesy of our friendly neighbourhood barman. Now, I don’t want to alarm you, Artemis… But another… Is Moonbeam.”

“Moonbeam? But Beth said”

“Yes. Well, things have changed for her. She’s found herself a new master. As a result, Moonbeam is surplus to her requirements so she’s given him to us. There’s also one slave that needs sedating so its additions can be added before shipping. I hope you like what my scientists came up with in that one’s case.”

“Additions? The terrorist?”

“Indeed. It’s been there in solitary, hasn’t seen another human being in all that time but it is time we got shot of it. If nothing else it’s a useless drain on resources. I have reactivated your punishment twitter handle to announce its arrival in Atlanta. They know to resume their hunt soon.”

I chuckled. “How’s it been handling it, sir?”

“Go up to the control room and have a look later. It’s really dragging its feet now. Walking about like it’s in a trance most of the time.”

“Good. Bastard deserves it… Sir… An idea concerning that one?”

“Yes?”

“We add the… Armour is it, sir?”

“You’ll see. You’ll be the one to add it. Go on.”

“Once it’s bonded to its suit, sir… We sedate it, but release it almost immediately, sir. We let it see what we’ve done to it. Let it know that it’s fucked, sir. How long will it take for the sedative to take effect?”

Q nodded, a malicious grin widening on his face. “I like your way of thinking. It’ll take about five minutes for it to collapse. To become helpless. Another five for total unconsciousness and we can remove its ident from the database so it can’t escape from the wet room.”

“Perfect. It can experience the podding, just as I did.”

“Ah yes. There was one other thing. I commend you, Artemis. Two really should know better by now, you handled it perfectly. It will have the code fully commented. The whole IT department is working overtime to get it done by tonight.”

“Thank you, sir. It’s going to take a while to reconfigure that code to work as a collection of shared libraries, to optimise it, to free up the space. I… had an idea, too, sir. Is it possible for you to make a hardware modification to the tag, sir. Just for Eighteen.”

“What kind of modification?”

“Maybe a little extra memory to give us more to play with, a few more patterns too. It might allow us to add another function to it.”

“Another function?”

“He is a gold, sir. We have more than a voice. Fob functionality, sir. He can’t handle one in any normal way.”

“That’s an excellent point. And you think you’ll be able to program it to allow him to reliably trigger such a fob?”

“It might be a little more limited, sir. It’ll need detection hardware to read a suit’s ident. One touch, maybe even a nip, sir. Then activate whichever function, determined by whichever pattern he chooses. He seems adept at choosing his syllables, sir. He should be able to imagine someone choking, pissing, stumbling blindly about, putting its hand to its ear or rolling around in agony or squirming in ecstasy, sir. If those patterns are as reliable as his speech… Should be more than possible, sir.”

“I’ll get my techies on it immediately. Well done, Artemis.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Was there anything else?”

“It is going to be a huge job, sir. How would you feel if I recruited some help at my end this time?”

“Help?”

“Seventeen described Blank as just a script kiddie but it did have enough knowledge to understand what my code was doing in order to remove the elevator safety protocols, sir. With blank and Seventeen as my underlings, things should speed up considerably and placing some trust in it at this point… I think it’ll further cement its commitment to you, sir.”

“Yes, then. Granted. Any code it touches will be examined of course. Just as yours was.”

“Of course, sir. I wouldn’t expect any different, sir. Even now, it’s useful to have many eyes on a project, even on my code, to prevent any serious screw ups.”

“Very well. Step back. M, Twelve, step forward.”

Both took a step and M tapped. “Yes, sir?”

“Things are getting a little… Top heavy over there, M.”

“Top heavy, sir?”

“Yes. Currently, you have Artemis, you, Twelve, Seventeen, Eighteen and Beta. All gold or above. Add to that all the silvers… It’s time you two came home.”

M stiffened. He looked around. “I… I get to join you there? On the island?”

”Of course. Every other slave from London joined me months ago. You’ll be with your old friends. Artemis is more than capable of taking the reins from you now and the golds can help shoulder the burden. With the new influx, we’ll need a couple more golds to help here. Also, they can be blanked when there are still more than required. I can… In fact, I will arrange for both of you to be blanked so you get to know the island and all that that entails before you resume your roles. I think a month should be enough. Would you agree, Artemis?”

I nodded. “If I’d been under the command of anyone but Eight, I would’ve hoped for longer, sir. I didn’t experience every job. Still haven’t been to the factory or been put on the cleaning crews there, helped the chef, the gardener or… Well I don’t know what else, sir. I’m not even sure how long I was a statue, sir.”

“Which statue were you, out of curiosity?”

“I think you can guess, sir. The major certainly took my words to heart, sir.”

“That one? You… Good god, you were good, there.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You were a statue for twenty-one days, Artemis.” His gaze shifted focus back to M and Twelve. “I’ll ensure that more jobs are assigned to you for shorter periods so you get to experience a lot more before you join the named slaves. Of course, as blanks that may mean a chance to race here, that all depends on the other golds of course. They’re organising them.”

Twelve and M both collapsed to their knees as if they were part of dance troop. Perfectly synchronised, they touched their foreheads to the floor.

Q chuckled. “I hoped you might like that news. As for the silvers, all are hunters so they remain. Muttley will become a silver soon and I’ve decided as the number is now free, it will be the new Eleven. It will remain until it understands what it is to be a blank and then a silver. It also means it gets to participate in a few more races, which will, I’m sure, please its friend no end. After all, where it goes, its friend goes. That was the agreement.”

I nodded.

“One final thing for now. Prize giving and the final results will take place this evening, after which… Artemis, The moment after you’ve finished the sedation and suiting, the addition to the terrorist and its podding, report to the shop floor for display duty. Select something comfortable to wear that will allow an electrocardiogram harness to be worn underneath.”

My head snapped up to stare master Q in the eyes. “The day, sir? The day of pleasure?!”

“Yes. It’s long overdue.”

It was my turn to collapse onto my knees in thanks.

Q nodded and with a “Q out.”, the display turned off.

I turned to M and shook his hand. “Congratulations. I… I’m going to miss you, M.”

“Ahh, you’ll see me often enough.”

Then I turned to Twelve. “Have you made peace with Blank yet, Twelve?”

“Peace? With… With the racist asshole? Fuck no!”

“Has it asked? Has it tried to talk to you?”

He nodded.

“Then please, listen to it. I admit, it was my doing. The moment it looked around and asked how could it tell if the blanks it was talking to were N… that word, I decided it needed to be punished. I was the blank who pointed it to you and told it to ask about white only cells, Twelve. I was also the blank who denied it later and offered to help by being put in the cage opposite.”

“You… Why?”

“Because I knew you, of all people, would react violently. It did need to learn a lesson but having spoken to it, it isn’t entirely its fault. Speak to it. Play a game of cards with it. Try to understand it.”

“But”

“Do you intend to put it through a living hell for the rest of its life just because it had a shit upbringing? It wasn’t just blacks its family and circle of friends hated, it was homosexuals too. It was disowned and forced out of its family home at gunpoint when its dad found out. So yes, speak to it. More. Prove to it there is no difference between us but a little background. Skin colour is irrelevant.”

“But sir!”

“Don’t make me order you, Twelve. It needs to get over its prejudices. That will never happen if you continue to mistreat it. It’ll only force the hatred to grow. Speak to it.”

Twelve sagged. He nodded.

“Good. You never know, you might even grow to like it. It might even become a friend. I know one thing. It’ll be scared shitless when it finds out you’re being shipped to the island at the same time it is unless you accept its attempts to talk. It probably thinks it’ll escape you there.”

He sighed and nodded again. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now I need a wash and feed. I’ll get the shorts, then I’ll release Blank and allow it to connect me up.”
* * *
I wandered the chastity aisle for a while, examining this and that. Never having been interested in the male side of things before, I went up to the desk.

It was the sarge in charge this time.

“Sarge, what would you recommend for our large friend downstairs, chastity wise? Q suggested shorts but there’s a few different models and also jocks there. Which is the most secure?”

He grinned and opened the flap, just as a customer entered.

That face looked familiar. He rushed up to the counter.

“Hello, sir. Would it be alright to try on the suit again? Maybe the dog again, too?”

It’d been a while, but that’s when I recognised him. “If I remember correctly, my master said you were welcome to try it whenever you liked, sir.”

His gaze snapped towards me. “That… Didn’t you used to have” he paused and looked at the back of my head, then stared at the mark. “Good god, what rank are you now, sir?”

“Fully human, just like the sarge, here. I’ve been away a while. How many times have you tried it on now? How many times have you spent more than a few days in it?”

“I just can’t get enough of it! Nearly every weekend and a few weeks too. I was hoping for a week this time as well. Oh god if I could be a dog for the whole week that’d be excellent.”

“It’s clear you love being a blank, sir. Why not go the whole hog, sir?”

He jumped, startled. “Give myself to him? I… I couldn’t! I mean…” he sighed. “I just don’t have the courage to make that kind of commitment. God, I wish I could have it forced on me. Force me to live in it for life with no hope of ever getting out, but I just don’t have it in me.”

I nodded in understanding. “If you’d care to wait here, sir. I’ll just go and collect everything together. I’m not sure, but we’ve been busy the past week with another race so I may need to get you a fresh suit rather than the one you have been wearing.”

“A fresh one? I get to go in through the mouth again?”

“If your normal one hasn’t been prepared, yes, sir.”

“Christ, this time it’s a good one. I loved climbing into it that first time.”

“Oh, I believe there’s one experience in the suit you haven’t experienced, either.”

“Really?”

“Every man who enters the suit for more than a month at a time has to endure a full deep clean. It’s more painful, true, but it completely clears out your bowels, it strips all the dead layers of skin along with finger nails and hair. The suit feels fuckin’ excellent after it. You feel light as a feather after the bowel clearout too.”

“Good god, how often do they have to go through that?”

“Normally, just the once, sir. If they’re forced to avoid a dehairing wash for an extended period for medical reasons, they need to go through it again, but that’s rare, sir.”

“Ah what the hell, do it. I want to experience everything it is to be a blank.”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes, sir.” I muted the band and selected the sarge. “Where’s the laptop, I just need to confirm.”

He grinned and nodded towards the back room.

The moment I was in front of it, I selected the Skype icon and that familiar tone sounded closely followed by Q’s voice.

“Yes?”

“Sorry to disturb you, sir. We’ve got a certain customer requesting another week in the suit, sir.”

“God, he’s back again?”

“Yes, sir. I… think it might be for the last time though.”

“Last time? He’s moving away?”

“No sir. It’s been a while but I seem to remember a standing order, sir. If he ever expresses a desire never to get out, no matter how flippantly…”

“What did he say?”

“I suggested he might like to go the whole hog. He replied, he doesn’t have the courage to commit to something like that. That he wished he could have it forced on him and later, when I suggested he might like to experience a full deep clean, he wanted to experience everything it is to be a blank, sir. Does that order still stand?”

“It does. Take him. Q out.”

I chuckled as I gathered everything together, permanent suit included.

A few minutes for the tubing, another half an hour for the suit and all additions to cure, I snapped on the head tube, unlocked the core, snapped on the ass tube, fed it the glycol and turned on the full clean. I connected the core to the charger in the next room and returned to the sarge.

“One more permanent blank. Has it seen downstairs?”

“Of course, but it’s not seen where downstairs is. We’ve always blackened its goggles, froze it as a dog and drove around the block before making the transfer.”

I nodded. “God, it’s in for a surprise this time. Now, chastity.”
* * *
This time wearing my full leathers, I lay the shorts before it, removed its head and ass tubes and tapped away. “Blank, when I release you from your freeze, step into the shorts at your feet.”

I turned off the light, it stepped into them and I turned it on again. Pull the shorts up, unzip the front, pull its cock and balls through, zip, zip, belt through, pull it tight and snap. One padlock on.

Tighten the leg belts, snap, snap. Done.

“That’s the last time you see your junk, Blank.” I turned off the light again. “Now, go and admire yourself in the mirror.”

It nodded and jogged over. It froze, stared at its chest, inched closer to the mirror and brushed its mark.

It turned to me. “What does it mean, sir?”

“There’s a lot of blanks and many of them have earned the right to remain my master’s property for life, Blank. He rewards blanks who impress him. Sometimes just with extra pleasure, sometimes, he elevates them and gives them a name but for the majority, those he believes have the potential to be named but aren’t quite there yet or because there aren’t any free spaces, he places such a mark. It means he’s proud of you, Blank. Proud of the ways you’ve changed, of what you’ve achieved.”

“He… But I thought all blanks were his property?”

“Oh, they are but unless they have that mark, it doesn’t mean they’ll remain his property forever. If a blank proves to be troublesome or lazy, he has a serious punishment he can hand out. Worse than any pain.”

“Oh fuck… What can he do that’s worse than the pain?”

“Simple. That island is truly the most amazing place you’ll ever experience. He sells them and if he does that it’s unlikely they’ll ever see it again. Think of it as being fired, but as suited slaves he can’t just kick them out, back into the world. He holds a slave auction once a year to get rid of dead wood. That mark protects you from that.”

“Slave auction? You mean, lead out, onto a stage and having a bunch of men yell prices at you?”

I nodded.

It shifted uncomfortably and scratched the front of its chastity.

“Well, we’ve certainly found one of your kinks, Blank. It excites you doesn’t it? Just as all those men gathering around your case excited you?”

Its attention snapped to me. It stood bolt upright and froze. Slowly, the freeze seemed to melt into what I could only guess was laughter. It nodded.

“Don’t screw this up, Blank. Keep that mark. If you do prove to be a problem or become lazy again, he can just as easily remove it and trust me, you do not want to be sold. If you want to experience the auction, tell him.”

“Good god… To stand, like this, in front of all those men, yelling to buy me?”

“It turns you on, Blank.” I chuckled. “That idea really got you hard, didn’t it?”

“The surprising thing is, I’m not ashamed to admit it! God, it did!”

“Good. Well, tell him. He can auction you off too, but he can do it in a way he retains ownership. Lease rather than sell. Rent you out for a month or two here or there. You wouldn’t be the first to request it either.”

“I can’t believe I’m even thinking about doing that! God, what’s happening to me?”

“You opening up, Blank. You’re accepting yourself rather than loathing what you are. Now you know this is it for you, now you’ve accepted that kinks can be a good thing, you’re…” I shrugged. “Let’s just say you’re coming along amazingly well, Blank. Embrace those things you thought were perverted. You’ll be amazed how much fun you can have in this life. Now, I want you to freeze me in a minute, feed me and tip a bottle of water down me while I have a wash.”

I jogged over to the corner shelving unit and picked a funnel, jar of food and bottle of water, handing them to it. Back to the cubicles, I stood. “Now, snap the head tube on, select level one on the panel there, close the door and flip the switch just outside. Wait for the panel to indicate its complete, turn off the light and disconnect my tube.

It did as it was told, fed me, watered me and half an hour later, I was done.

“Oh, I’ve got one more piece of news for you.”

“Better than this, sir?” It pointed at its mark.

“Oh, maybe not better, but different. You know I created the program. I have another program to work on now. One that was written by one of Q’s slaves on the island, but he’s… Not done too good a job of it.”

“What program, sir?”

“Have you spoken to Eighteen, Blank?”

“I’ve heard him speak, sir. It… sounds weird, sir.”

“It’s an enhancement to the idea that makes the tails and jaws of the dog work. A way for him to talk. Pattern matching brainwaves is tricky and the program takes up all the memory on that tag of his. I believe with a complete restructuring of the code, we can add enough functionality to allow him to speak naturally. You and Seventeen are going to help me with that code.”

“Me, sir? But I wrecked your program! I”

“You recognised what it was doing, Blank. You had enough understanding to know what to do to disable the elevator protocols and add a few bits of your own. You know how to code. I’ll be on hand to guide you, but this program is huge and it’ll cut the time considerably with the help of others and you two are the most qualified here. So yes, you.”

“But I thought”

“Thought you’d never see a computer again? Yes, well, you’ve changed enough to place some trust in you now. You’re on my team.”

It sank to its knees and placed its forehead to the floor. I could tell by the conviction of the gesture it meant it.

“Stand up, Blank. Let’s get up to the rec room. I imagine you’ll start making more friends now you have the mark to show off.”