Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies. – William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (II, ii)
“I’m looking forward to seeing you at seven-ninety then. Thank you, Lord Zolan!” Marilith covered the glass and settled back onto the cushions of the divan; the feelings of a new patron were often overwhelming at first, and she would need much of the next hour to sort through them. “Tea please, Cynthia,” she said when her handmaiden appeared in response to the bell.
“Red lotus as usual, mistress?”
“Yes, and the incense too.” Then as the servant turned to go, she added, “And you’ll need to stay close for this one, I think.”
Cynthia’s face remained as impassive as ever, but she asked, “Do you think he’ll be dangerous?”
“Dangerous? No. Very ardent, though; I can feel his intensity even now, and I’ll need your capable hands if I lose myself in so deep a pool.” No answer but a deep bow was necessary, so Cynthia gave no other, and a moment later she was gone. Though she had been here for six months now, Marilith was still impressed with her efficiency; she had indeed been a wise investment, just as Dr. Galen had promised.
This house, too, had been a wise investment; its proximity to the palace and the spectacular view of the cloud-piercing Tower of Heaven would have justified its expense even without the space and amenities it offered. As a child, she could only have dreamed of living in Yian, much less owning a lovely mansion and the finest servants human ingenuity could produce…but that was before her talent had manifested itself, and before she had recognized how she could improve her situation by its use.
A wave of lust spread through Marilith’s body, momentarily startling her with its intensity; her new client was presently transacting some business in the Tower, and by looking toward it she had inadvertently opened the empathic channel more widely. She inhaled deeply of the calming incense (when had Cynthia brought it in? As silent as she was quick!) and explored Lord Zolan’s feelings, gliding through them as though swimming in a strong current, not fighting them yet not allowing them to carry her away, either. He was an important man, high in the Imperial bureaucracy, and such men usually have powerful passions; once she had mapped the rugged and complex landscape of his desires and fully learned how to appeal to them, he would be an excellent and loyal client. Today he would only be here for an hour, but that was almost too much for the first time with such an intense lover.
The tea helped her to master the invading emotions, and when she was done she went to her closet to dress. The contact was more than strong enough for her to divine how best to appeal to him, and by the time his heightened anticipation told her that he was on his way she had dressed, made up and had her hair arranged for maximum effect. All that remained was her customary prayer at the small shrine adjoining her boudoir, and she was ready; when she sensed he had touched down on the landing stage she moved into the parlor and artfully arranged herself on the cushions.
“Lord Zolan of Orissa,” Cynthia announced, and he entered the room in a burst of excitement which sharply increased the moment his eyes fell upon Marilith. He crossed the room in a remarkably dignified fashion considering his emotional state, and raised her hand to his lips with something closely akin to awe.
“Your images fall utterly short of the reality,” he said in a hoarse whisper. She knew that this was a totally sincere statement; no image, still or moving, could adjust its posture and facial expressions to appeal to the viewer’s individual preferences as she had learned to do. She pitied courtesans without her gift; feigned lust and interest, no matter how perfectly imitated, could never match the real ones she borrowed from her clients. She was the perfect dance partner, and followed as effortlessly as a shadow.
Some of her callers relished the anticipation, their passions mounting as she prolonged the preliminaries until the point they could stand it no longer, but Lord Zolan was not one of them; his need was a raging fire, and there would be ample time for conversation once it had been temporarily quenched. For now, only two words were needed: “Take me.”
It was as though she had thrown a lever to release some mechanism powered by a tightly-coiled spring. Her own passion rose in tandem with his as he literally tore the gown from her body and covered her bosom in rough kisses, all hope of self-control lost to her now; she wanted him as badly as he wanted her, and there was absolutely nothing artificial about the ecstasy she felt as he entered her, nor about her synchronous climax when he reached his own within a very short time as all her lovers did.
When her senses eventually returned, Marilith glanced at the wall clock and saw it was just after eight; that left ninety minutes of their appointment, so there was no need to awaken her guest right away. While he slept peacefully she could regain her composure and get a better look at him through eyes unblurred by the intense emotions she had felt while he was awake. He was a well-built, good-looking man with strong features, every bit the son of a sirdar; according to the peerage records Marilith had consulted last week when he first contacted her, his mother was a great-great granddaughter of the royal house of one of the Outer Worlds. So in addition to the generous fee and the undeniable physical and emotional pleasure she would gain from his visits, he had good family connections on both sides which could prove very valuable to her; his patronage might provide the means by which she eventually secured a title, an advantageous marriage in a class far above that into which she had been born, or both.
But there would be plenty of time for that later; right now she was enjoying her life as the most sought-after companion in the capital…the attention, the intense pleasures, the comforts and most of all the wealth. Political power would come as easily and naturally as the rest had.
She smiled, and began to kiss and caress her noble visitor’s head.
great story,i love courtesans and i love the tower photo. i can say that now i undersand more than ever how gratifying it is for a woman to be showered with money and gifts by an admirer.ive always had a very high sex drive for a woman and liked to do one night stands and experimenting a lot with gangbangs etc.i never cared for the other persons money in my relationships,like other women did.but i got together with a rich 47 year old man,mostly for the money he has.he takes me to listen to my favourite singers in the places they sing(which in Greece they are very expensive,you order a bottle of whiskey for 100 euros ,not to mention the flowers,which are mainly to throw to the performers,but he showers me with those as well),he takes me to expensive restaurants and shopping in places where i could never dream of even entering.in return he only wants 20 year old pussy.this makes me a prostitute,but i find this prostitution to be more of a turn on,rather than being together with a hunk my age.
Not too unpleasent to read.
Reeks of self-insert fiction though.
You do recognize that nearly ALL of my stories published in this blog have whore characters, right? How can you have read here for months and still fail to recognize that I’m not even close to an empath, married for love rather than social position and have absolutely no interest in political power? If anything, Marilith is among the heroines of my stories who are least like me. 🙁
😛 Self insert is not necessarily about who or what you are. It is about what you think is probably the most awesome.
I did the same, back when I was younger in pen and paper Roleplay…
However, you might be correct, Self Insert is the wrong nomenclature. It should be: Almost Mary Sue.
.
Be assured though, that I enjoy the little interludes nonetheless, and even though I do only comment about every other Month, I read every one of your collumns and enjoy them lots!
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btw, in Germany there’s a big political debate at the moment regarding the circumcision of infant boys. A Colognian Court ruled in June, that circumcising a boy without medical urgency (i.e. if he had no phimosis or other conditions) was tantamount to bodily injury (I am unsure of my Vocabulary here) and thus violating the childs basic Human Right to not be harmed, very much like female circumcision is a violation of human rights.
It took a mere 3 weeks of discussion and pressure from Judoislamic sources for our parliament to fall in line and call for legalization of mutilation…
🙁 Usually I am so proud of my country protecting human rights independent of religious tradition.
This is not such a time 🙁
You’re not proud that your country stood up for freedom of religion?
There’s no human rights involved here – since there’s no harm being caused to humans. I’m circumcised and happily so – I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s comical that people compare removing a foreskin to removal of a clitoris. I think they should all visit the Wikipedia article on female genital mutilation to understand that female “circumcision” is quite different (and infinitely more horrible) than male circumcision.
Well, my brother was circumcised as an adult due to an overlong foreskin in combination with phimosis – and he says that masturbation for example is alot less pleasureable.
Other than that:
I agree that the QUALITY of male versus female circumcision is on wholly different levels: Female circumcision removes almost all pleasure from sex and is a severe mutilation of the body, while male circumcision probably only removes SOME pleasure. However, did you know that more children in the US die due to complications arising out of a circumcision, than due to sudden child death?
I won’t argue the Quality. But human rights don’t discriminate by quality. It doesn’t matter wether or not you mutilate alot or a little, what matters is that you irreversibly modify the body of someone who can’t speak out for himself and cannot ever consent. It is a violation of the infants right to his own body, it is a violation to the infants right to have done no harm to him, if not medically necessary.
Crude and Archaic Rituals cannot be weighed in heavier than Human rights, imho.
I read about the circumcision of the 4 year old. It was done for religious reasons; there were no medical indications. The Court recognised that the child could not give informed consent at his age; and that the procedure was done at the instigation of the parent(s). Because the child, being underage, could not consent, it was therefore a breach of his human rights: it was forced upon him. Any surgical procedure is an “assault” for which permission is necessary.
I’ve heard that some mohels do the minimum necessary to keep within the Jewish laws; and that some of them made such a hash-up that surgical correction was needed at puberty.
There are few valid surgical indications for circumcision — either a phimosis or recurrent infection, for example.
And if you’re a circumcised American, you do realise why it was done? Apart from a fee for the surgeon, the procedure was popularised in the 19th century as an anti-masturbation drive, and of course your parents want you to look like “regular” guys. And, following the “guidelines”, it was best done without anaesthetic so you’d remember.
Please – an “assault”? So a mother who takes her daughter into a shopping mall to have her ears pierced is committing an “assault”?
I wonder if you realize how silly that all sounds – calling circumcision an “assault” and claiming that any surgical procedure is also unless permission is given by the child who under the age to give such consent.
I don’t belong to any religion that requires circumcision. I was circumcised for the following reasons …
1. My mother thought it was the more attractive option for males.
2. It’s much easier to keep a circumcised penis clean and I saw this in the Navy when a lot of the guys who were “uncut” got infections in the field. I have never, not a single time – ever gotten so much as a sore on mine.
3. In the 60’s in the American South – it was a sign of class status and meant your parents were well off enough to have given birth to you in a hospital. Lower class people still delivered their babies at home and almost never circumcised. No, I don’t think this is a particularly good reason but I understand why parents back then had it done so that their kids would “fit in” with the upper classes.
By the way – my father IS NOT circumcised and he obviously concurred with this decision. He even explained to me all the above reasons and said, if he had had a choice – he would have been circumcised also but wasn’t about to go to the surgeon at his age to have it done.
I had my son circumcised … I made this decision in a LaMase class with my wife – they went over this in class and there were about 20 – 30 women in the class. They almost ALL said they liked circumcised penises more than natural ones. Little did I know, my wife had already made the decision and said … “Uhm no, I already decided he’s getting cut”. My wife has plenty of experience with “uncut” men. Plenty experience with ALL kinds of men! LOL.
Do you have a source for this? Perhaps you’re right – but in any case – I was not born in the 19th century but much later. My parents didn’t know anything about what you’re speaking of.
Yes, as I explained above. I’ll also add that I played football and baseball and basketball and spent plenty of time in communal showers in locker rooms. I can tell you that, when I was growing up – the boys who were “uncut” were self-conscious about being different.
Well – they failed then, because I DO NOT remember when the procedure was performed on me – I don’t recall a single thing about it.
Also – I asked my son once when he was in college if he regretted being circumcised and he responded … NO!! He said that most of the boys his age are uncut so he actually feels special. I asked him how girls responded to it (he and I have a relationship where we can talk about these things) … he told me the girls who’ve seen it simply grin from ear to ear when they see him – he was quite excited by their reception and said he had never gotten any negativity from a girl about it.
I was using the word “assault” in its legal sense, and to be provocative. Any operation, in the sight of the law (in the UK, and I’d guess in the US) is an assault for which consent must be given. Not just any consent, here it must be “informed consent”, and until you’re legally an adult, your parents must consent for you.
In a previous existence I used to circumcise boys and men — for medical indications; the operation isn’t as easy as you might think, if you want it done properly.
Circumcision as an anti-masturbatory procedure began in Victorian times, though the “evil” of masturbation was popularised about a century earlier in a french work about Onanism (which isn’t masturbation, rather it’s coitus interruptus). It was also popular as a preventative against syphilis, though this didn’t work; it may work against HIV/Aids.
As well as circumcision, the Victorians had lots of other devices against masturbation; clips over the prepuce, metallic sheaths with spikes in them; caustic applications to the urethra…
Circumcision in the UK fell out of favour after the first world war, before which it had been routine in the upper classes. And yes, the “experts” did recommend that it be done around the age or six or seven without any anaesthetic, so that the child would remember.
There was even a very brief vogue for excision of the clitoris, again as an anti-masturbatory procedure; that peculiar Victorian idea that proper girls were asexual, even if “hysteria” could be treated by inducing a “nervous paroxysm” in them. The work of some physicians was greatly helped by the invention of the vibrator.
Thinking that circumcised boys and men are somehow “better” than the uncircumcised is a product of socialisation, a belief for which there is no real evidence.
Beware physicians when they moralise; they are dangerous!
I shot up a guy about this on a conservative website a few days ago on this – a new blogger who made the statement that “birth control is immoral”. This guy came from a Catholic blogging site.
My point to him was that since most people out here in “RealVille” practice birth control – and since he, by extension, made the accusation that all of us who do are “immoral” – then most of us quit reading his column right there and dismissed him out of hand.
And that’s my point to you also.
Now you keep claiming that I was circumcised to prevent me from masturbating. That somehow, this “belief”, which evolved and died over a century before I was born, is the reason I was circumcised. This is silly – and besides – it never prevented me from masturbating. We celebrate Christmas also don’t we? Didn’t that evolve from some pagan practice? I live on what was previously Indian land – stolen by white Europeans – will I give it back? Nope.
You mention that circumcision may help prevent the spread of HIV. Yes – it also may help prevent the spread of genital herpes and HPV.
Also – I never said that circumcision makes anyone “better”.
Now – I ask a question. Are you pro-choice? If so – you consider that practice to be perfectly acceptable while removing the foreskin from a male child is … assault? I can not articulate how goofy that paradox is.
Lastly – I am FOR freedom of religion. Parents have a right to raise their kids the best way they know how – without your interference. For many – religion is the cornerstone of how they raise children into responsible adults. There are tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of responsible adults out there who were raised in religious homes. They pay a lot of the desperately needed tax funds required to feed our bloated government. Were they not there – we’d already be in the situation that Greece is in.
Now – I don’t really see it myself – but for many of these religions circumcision is an important part of their religious identity and culture. They have a right to practice it and I’m always glad to see governments refuse to buckle to liberal sentiments (which I think really are anti-semitic sentiments) over banning circumcision and removing choice from parents.
Inflicting damage upon someone else is not protected by freedom of religion. Your defense of circumcision primarily because it is attractive to females is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard from a man. I hope you’re at least keeping your daughters’ labia neat and trim as well.
Actually, I think one of the most pathetic things I’ve seen are men who are so hypersensitive to male issues that they INSIST that females be treated the same. The world isn’t out to get men, Wilson – lighten up and live a bit.
As far as circumcision – meh – it’s my choice … so if you want to force me to stand with the Jews and the Christians to protect that choice – so be it. 😀
By the way – the hypersensitivity is unmasculine. We’re supposed to be able to deal with adversity, adapt, improvise, and overcome.
With always a smile on our face and a twinkle in our eye! 😉
I have an ally in Catherine Bennett in today’s Observer newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/22/catherine-bennett-circumcision-is-bad?INTCMP=SRCH
Do you actually believe that this character is unrealistic in her world (which you know nothing about other than what I’ve told you), and that I identify with an amoral social climber?
Or do you simply have no real idea what a “Mary Sue” is?
Where do you take this from? Doesn’t the first sentence read thusly:
“A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader”
?
I believe in the way that she is the most awesome courtesan and most sought after and most powerfull to manipulate any man – she is mary sue.
A view from a poor girl working her way up with problems and hardships – that would’ve been intersting. A story about a woman who has everything she could ever wish for, except for some first world problems like not having already married into a family of high status… Not so much in my opinion.
The term “Mary Sue” originates from Star Trek fanfiction. It’s become such a popular criticism that many authors now refuse to include any female characters at all.
But aren’t all heroic characters Mary Sues? Wonder Woman, Ayla, Boadicea, Jirel of Joiry, Captain Janeway. Captain Kirk, Tarzan, Conan, Robin Hood, don’t even get me started on Superman.
The term has grown to the point that it no longer has any useful meaning; because it means everything, it means nothing.
Wow, so you don’t consider amorality, insincerity and using people to be character flaws? I think you’re highly unusual among my readers in that respect.
As for working her way up, etc…you do recognize these are 750-1500 word stories, right? Such a story provides only a “slice of life”, not a weltanschauung. And even if I could fit all that, not every story has to be Horatio Alger; they would be pretty boring if they were all the same. I have already covered that type of plot in “Ambition“, and there’s no need to repeat it.
Methinks you made a hasty and ill-considered criticism and are now scrambling to justify it.
My sentiment stays unchanged 😛
However, being German, “Weltanschauung” does not mean what you probably think it does. Crudely translated into englisch it probably does, bot one persons “Weltanschauung” is the way he or she believes the world works, his or her relationship to religion etc etc.
What you wanted to say was “… not a comprehensive exploration of the stories world”, wasn’t it?
In English, the German word weltanschauung is used as a literary term meaning a complete world view, such as one gets in a novel. The Lord of the Rings provides a weltanschauung, whereas a short story only provides a narrow view, a “slice of life”. That’s why plot-driven genres (such as science fiction or mystery) make extensive use of short stories, while character-driven genres such as romance do not. Furthermore, the short-short story provides an even narrower “slice of life” and as such is best suited to vignettes, shock shorts, jokes, contes cruels and other such genres whose primary purpose is to paint a word-image rather than to explore the wider possibilities the short story format makes possible.
Archont, here’s a clue: All fiction is “self-insert” to a greater or lesser degree. You might as well sneer at her for using a keyboard to write her story.
To clarify: Even if Maggie wrote a character who was an Amish minister’s wife, there would be a little bit of Maggie somewhere in that character.
There’s also the point that when I actually want to do self-insert, I make it obvious (as in “Penelope” and, to a lesser extent, “Christmas Belle“).
I’ve nominated you for the Lovely Blogger Award! You’re awesome! <3
http://whoredinary.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/wow-i-was-nominated-for-an-award/
Thank you! It seems the Versatile Blogger Award has changed its name. 🙂
You’re very welcome, it’s well deserved! It may have changed it’s name but I think this is a different one altogether.
Oh, libertarians and their creepy obsession with a return to brutally oppressive aristocracies.
Yes, I know it’s just fantasy, but still, shouldn’t the world of this story be some kind of horrific nightmare society to you?
And why is it always feudal systems, never something modern? There’s been made on this stuff, we have way better systems than hereditary civil service.
Why does every fictional society have to be one I might like to live in? That’s a time-tested way to write crap; not everything has to be a utopia or dystopia. Furthermore, what do you know about this world other than what I presented here? Absolutely nothing. You don’t even know if it’s in the past, present, future, or a totally alternate world in one of those three.
I understand, these kinds of feudal empires are very appealing to everybody, not just libertarians. It’s a very personal system where, the Lord of Orissa is the owner of all of Orissa, so befriend him and you’re nominally friends with everybody that matters in Orissa.
Plus, it’s very appealing from a heroic standpoint, because someone’s heroism is eternally reward with both honor and income.
This one does seem to be better than other fictional societies you’ve written about.
And finally, you do describe the bureaucracy and social structure to some degree, and it paints a picture of a very ineffectual organization. That system is not going to provide the highest quality of life for as many people as possible.
So considering that this is not meant to be a tract on good government, how exactly does this matter? Are all stories now required to have a moral or to promote some plan of social engineering? If that’s what you believe, remind me never to read any of your fiction.
I’m just pointing out an amusing coincidence. And then trying to explain why I found it funny in simultaneously far too many and not enough words. 🙂
I get that the comment was only semi-serious. Still have to quote one of Niven’s laws:
“There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is ‘idiot.'”
Luckily, since I was analyzing why people, including Maggie like writing about neo-feudal societies and not the opinions and beliefs of any characters in those stories, that doesn’t apply to me.
Really, you’ve made an observation that Libertarians have a creepy obsession with a return to brutally oppressive aristocracies?
I’m having a hard time making a connection between Maggie writing this story and some kind of “obsession” that she has for any kind of “return” to that sort of thing.
In fact, the way I see it is like this … it’s a story about a prostitute with extra sensory perception (or something more incredible). Were I to write a story about such a tart – I would not drop her in modern-day Manhattan … because her special skill wouldn’t necessarily push her up the social ladder in such an intriguing way as it does in this feudal society.
PRECISELY!
It’s easier to write about quasi-Feudal systems for science fiction, because they are at once familiar and alien. That’s probably why there was so much aristocratic type stuff in Firefly. It’s actually very hard to come up with some new society that has never existed before. The thing about aristocracies is they had their good points and bad points. Take England under Charles I. An aristocracy that believed in spectacles and the arts under threat from a religious cast that would (and did) destroy all such things. The religious cast was more democratic, but the aristocrats were more fun and educated.
Even the various versions of the Foundation seemed to relate to various archaic systems from Earth history.
One of the reasons I like this blog so much is that there is this cultural gap between you and Maggie and me.
I honestly thought that it was lighthearted joke, just an icebreaker, something that said that we didn’t agree on things but were still comfortable communicating.
I mean, I got what she was going for, the feudal era was the Courtesan golden age. And she wanted to make it believable so she set it in a sci-fi universe. It’s just I found it funny that the feudal society was like the most advanced one she ever wrote. And I wanted to point that out as a topic to talk about why Feudal societies are so popular.
When Maggie posted that angry reply, I was really surprised. I was a little worried something bad had happened.
And I know how weird that sounds.
i havent searched much on libertarianism,but i have some trouble understanding whether it argues for the abolition of government like anarchism does.if it goes for the personal freedom to choose ones life,whether it be abortion,sex work or even drugs,without government interfering im all for it,though.but actual anarchism or communism?no.i am really weary of political ideologies that cant be put into practice, utopias ,with which i disagree on many things anyway.whats worse especially communists tend to be tyranical but both are stuck in their beleifs,even though they cant do anything good about society on a practical level except from bitching.
Libertarianism is a very broad philosophy and while most libertarians believe the government does have a role in society, there are libertarian anarchist.
Yes, is all about personal freedom, but it does a poor job selling itself.
Libertarians as I have seen them, pretty much just bitch about the government, but if you talk about corporate abuse, they will start bitching about them too.
So what kind of government do YOU subscribe to? You’ve had pretty bad words for both Libertarianism and Socialism … I’m assuming you’re either a radical Capitalist or Marxist?
I don’t know. I’m still working out what I think.
With Libertarianism I think that it just has a problem with the way it views itself, too concerned with opposing government intervention in the economy and not enough with the rest of their doctrine. Like firefighters who only fight the biggest part of the fire and ignore everything else. (But as a general rule, that there are exceptions to. So rebuttals are not necessary)
I think of it as like, one day someone will come along and put libertarian philsophy together and it will be awesome and everybody will love it and I will have to eat a lot of crow. But that person will not be any of you guys.
With socialism and marxism, I trying to share with you this thing I noticed about them, where the original hypothesis was a very min/anarchistic idea that libertarianism that wasn’t pro-business.
You have almost look up what they said at the very beginning and just completely ignore everything to see it, but it’s there.
It’s just masked by the combination of how badly the originally social experiment failed and what they are saying now, but it’s still there.
I think it poses a warning to libertarians, because it shows what is already happening with libertarianism. When I first brought up libertarianism, Maggie told me that it was full of “selfish morons” who were just corporate shills.
And socialists and libertarians agree on legalizing drugs and stopping police excess. So, these two really close ideas have almost been manipulated into fighting each other by the “Elite”.
That massive wall of text was me just working out stuff.
Another reason I don’t agree with libertarianism is people like the guy below me. Historical liberals were an extremely diverse group of people and they did not appoint you as their heir. Merely agreeing with them doesn’t give you the right to declare all their hard work yours.
Convienient.
What I think is most interesting is that this artificial brouhaha by two commenters obscured some of the truly interesting questions y’all should be asking, such as: Where and when is this? Who are these people? Is their history completely fictional, or does it have historical antecedents? Are the personal and place names just made up or do they point to a cultural tradition? What the hell is Cynthia, really? “Seven-ninety?”? And why the purple eye?
Cynthia’s quite clearly an android – after all, considering the strength of Marilith’s empathic capabilities and her incapacity of voluntarily controlling them, she probably wouldn’t want to stew in someone else’s emotions all day. The names are mostly Greek, Indian and Chinese, except for Marilith, who is a D&D demon, an out-of-place-ness which, together with the purple eye, makes me wonder if her ancestry is fully human. Aspasia would be the historical antecendent on the Greek side, and I’m not familiar enough with non-western history to find the probable antecendents on the Indian and Chinese sides. As for where and when this happens, I’d place my bets on an alternate-history future Earth – the return of feudalism in our Earth combined with the colonisation of other worlds seems a bit implausible and the names vote against your run-of-the-mill SF planet. As for the seven-ninety thing, you’re obviously using a different time division system than ours, but I can’t figure out much of its characteristics from a single data point. Anyway, this is quite possibly my favourite story of yours, so please tell me what I’ve missed 🙂
You have scored very close to 100%; I’ll tell more after we give some others a chance to check in. 😉
I’ll hazard a guess on “seven-ninety.” A decimal time system, with one hundred “minutes” or “deci-hours” or whatever they would be called.
I did wonder what a type VI demoness was doing in a future tech society. 😉
Especially with Empathic powers; they don’t normally lend themselves to the kind of activity usually attributed to demonic forces. 🙂
Just as there isn’t time to build up a character’s entire history, there isn’t time to build up the entire world. “Seven-ninety” let me know that they aren’t using our system of telling time, “no image, still or moving” let me know this wasn’t ancient Sumeria or such, and the purple eye was exotic, though I once saw a little girl with eyes almost that same color. I figured it’s “somewhere, somewhen, something else,” and let it be. “Once upon a time.”
Cynthia would seem to be an android of some sort; perhaps slightly more realistic than a sexbot is an assistant-bot to a courtesan.
There seems to be a skull reflected in the eye. Never noticed it before.
The text clearly implied the eye was purple because of genetically engineered nanomachine radiation. 🙂
Yeah somehow this thread veered off into the Delta Quadrant.
socialism and communism is basically the same thing.not even ussr reached the level of what communism entails,it was socialist.what parties which label themselves as socialist today aim for(supposedly,because like most politicians they are frauds and liars)is basically a mixed economy,economy being directed by both the state and private ownership,but still mostly capitalist(we have such a system in Greece,some major sources of wealth,like the bets on soccer games belong to the state,but most businesses are private owned and homes are definitely not distributed according to ones needs,like in the ussr),strong equal rights for all people,like free health,education,good and equal pay,8 hours of work and with emphasis in individual liberty.i have basically descibed the scandinavian model,which is a mixture of capitalism and socialism, with emphasis in the individual rights,except from the rights of sex workers,where its downright tyrannical.it is considered the most succesful economic model,but you cant label it socialist, strictly speaking,because socialism opposes capitalism and wants it eradicated,no matter how the parties label themselves.on a side note,i have finally an explanation for the rise of that type of feminism in Sweden.they have nothing important to occupy themselves with since they have solved almost everything and they keep themselves concerned with whether a cat call is a manifestation of sexist oppression.as an ancient greek quote says;idleness is the mother of all evils.
Historic liberals (ie. libertarians) were equally capable of criticizing – and eventually destroying – both the divine right of kings and agricultural slavery, serfdom etc. Tyranny is wrong, whether governmental or private.
As a rule, libertarians are minarchists; they recognize some government is necessary, but maintain that its purpose is to enforce contracts, provide common defense and some infrastructure and keep violent individuals from harming others.
Here’s a basic little animation on the philosophy behind libertarianism.
Dammit … I couldn’t comment this morning because my connection went down – but I want to say now that this story is ABSOLUTELY HOT!
Now, I have to say that if this story had been written by a man – I’d feel pretty icky and a bit hollow about it. But you’ve articulated a REALLY HOT bout of sex here that’s respectful to the “heroine” at the same time she’s submitting to this Lord. And all this came from a female brain and … and …
I just need a cold shower!
Awesome job, Maggie!
Thank you! But take a closer look and ask yourself who’s really dominating who there. 😉
Oh no – I got that part too and I think it’s sexy!! The story of my life is women who keep me “on an invisible chain” by using submissive sex as a tool to do it. They know that “binds” me emotionally to them and I’ll do anything for them after that. I’m just not a complex male at all. 😛
When I was younger – I never knew what they were doing – now that I’m older and can spot it – I don’t have a problem with it whatsoever as long as the girl isn’t trying to harm me.
Isn’t this the way a lot of women operate? I’ve been fortunate to not get “stung” by any really devious women – I think I can spot those types though. It’s strange that almost every single woman I’ve ever dated is like this – even though physically they were all different, they all shared that trait. Not sure what that means – it may even say something negative about me – but I’m not concerned enough to bother with it. 😀
On the ENTERPRISE episode where we discovered that the Orion males were the real slaves to the women – I suddenly envied the Orion men! 🙂
You have to be an imbecilic child not to see that the woman here has almost all of the power in this relationship. It doesn’t matter who wrote the story. She has something he wants, and she’s looking to harvest what he can potentially give her in exchange – not just some money on the table.
Um, … that describes most heterosexual relationships, BTW.
maggie – fantastic little tale. You had me unti the end, where the urge to rush description came too quickly. You were trying to remain short on words, but were saying too much.
This woman is obviously patient, and excellent at keeping secrets. She lives an internal life independent of her physical and social existence, and is clearly somewhat divorced from it. This explains her ability to be coldly calculating while at the same time engaging on an intimate (very intimate) level.
She is, really, not just a courtesan.
Your last few sentences make it seem like you were composing a great short story, sand were about to introduce some plot element or contrivance to get the story moving, but then you try too hard to say too much too quickly, breaking the spell.
Weave that magic, … just a bit longer.
Ah, but that’s all I wanted to say; the short-short is really my native medium. I prefer just to paint a picture than a whole comic book. 😉
My problem is that I find it hard to write anything short, and hard to finish anything long.
And Libertarians and everyone else like to write in many worlds.
One of the key components of a good story is social conflict and tension. In a perfect libertarian world, in which you’d want to live, this tension might be absent.
Worlds in which there’s a lot of power imbalance often are much more interesting than those without them.
Also more realistic. Because equal power relationships do not, unfortunately or fortunatley, characterize any human social group.
When the Icelandic Sagas were written, the people of Iceland had no war, no king, no taxes, and very little in the way of crime. The Sagas are all about killing each other.
In the United States, as our rates of violent crime have fallen, our television crime dramas have gotten more violent, more gory, and more senseless.
I myself wrote a story set in the first decade of the 22nd Century. While much of this world I would indeed like to live in, the premise of the story is largely built around a social engineering program which I would oppose in real life.
And of course there are all the stories where “I wouldn’t want to live there” is the whole point.
Well said. I am reminded of the ancient Chinese curse (which I am not speaking to anyone who reads this), “May you live in interesting times.” Because the fact is, the most interesting times to read about are the worst to live through.
unfortunately for me,in my country we live through interesting times.
Greece is living through interesting times now. It is my hope that the birthplace of both science and democracy (and I don’t think that’s a coincidence) has a long, happy, boring future.
the birthplace of science and democracy according to the bild and other popular german newspapers is now full of lazy,morally bankrupt,ungrateful exploiters of the ”innocent”economically strong countries,such as Germany,whose tax payers are forced to pay our debts.there is much racism against us in eu right now and not enouph seem to remember that the values in which eu is founded upon are based on ancient greek values.the british prime minister,David Cameron even had the nerve of saying that if Greece exits the eurozone he will close the borders for greek immigrants.if he wants us out of his country then i suggest he starts the deportation from the eldest greeks they exist in his country;those century old Caryatids that were stolen from their home in parthenon and now live in british museums.
That’s brilliant! I am going to “tweet” it right now!
I have a lot of sympathy with your view: that the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece. They were exported from Greece under a licence granted by the then Turkish overlords of the country.
But this is a can of worms: look at Pergamon, in modern day Turkey. A Greek temple exported to Berlin. I’ve been to the site, which was barren, and to the museum, and I’d really prefer if the temple had been restored in situ. But the Germans were allowed to export the temple. The Austrians (archaeologists) did restore things in situ, such as the Library of Celsus at Ephesus: much more to my taste.
This is more than a greek/turkish fight: I love both countries (and their food); but does raise the question: just what are museums for, and what relics should they include?
we have a new museum of the Acropolis right now,which could accomodate the Elgin marbles fabulously.if you go to Athens,i suggest you visit it,its great.when we ask for what was made by Greek hands to be returned to Greece whether the elgin marbles or Venus de Milo or Victory of Samothrace(the last two are in Louvre,as you may know) is not only because for a Greek having to visit a foreign country to see their ancestors works of art is like going to France to eat olives,albeit a lot more degrading because they were often stolen from us and especially the british government has refused to give them back,using ridiculous excuses.its also because i feel they often exploit the exhibits for the tourists money,without actually having any love for them,certainly they will never love them as much as we do;for us they mean everything,its part of our being,our identity.in the difficult times we go through now,only a glance at the Pathenon from afar is enouph to give us hope.
Us too, I’m afraid. 🙁
Or, as Tolkien put it;
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
I love that Chinese curse: It sounds soooo benign, doesn’t it? 😈
Maggie, have you ever tried submitting your stories to any of the online literary magazines? I don’t know if you have any interest in that, but I think some of them could be published since they are well-written stories that contain the elements most modern magazines are looking for: “strong” female protagonists (by “strong” the publishers today mean a woman who can manipulate her way through the world), elements of fantasy/sci-fi thrown in to spice it up (without too much relevance to the actual plot) and they are all really short or basically flash fiction.
As to the story itself, the only thing I found lacking is some kind of conflict or yearning. As you have said, it is a slice of life story so there’s no room for any real character development (that’s why I generally dislike flash fiction), but Marilith isn’t really trying to get something in the story, or at least I didn’t get the feel that she does. Sure, you’ve said that she is trying to move upward through the social class system by securing a new patron but you’ve also said that she’s well-off financial and socially due to her unique gift. It’s just that there is no real tension here: even if she fails in securing herself a better life and political power, she can just as easily fall back and try to ensnare another man with a high social standing. There’s little or no risk involved for her.
Also, why does she yearn for the political power so much? Her desires are not explained properly. Sure, one can lust after power for the sake of power, but I think it would be better to include some ulterior motive.
For me, the story runs smoothly until the last paragraph where the conclusion was a bit rushed and too much things were directly dumped on the reader, instead of leaving it on a mysterious note.
With all that being said, I really liked the story, and seriously: your writing skills are very good; you should try to publish some of your material.
Thank you, Boar. When I do publish, it will be either by myself or by a publisher who has asked for my material and will therefore allow me to retain full creative control. The act of “submitting” one’s work is just that: a submission to some else’s judgment and control. If someone wants my work he’ll have to take it as I choose to present it, not as he wants me to or thinks I should.
Heh, you make a good case against submitting your work for editor’s approval, but unfortunately it’s the only way to get published by any well-known magazine (no publisher will ever ask for your work unless you’re already a bestselling author who can make them money).
I guess self-publishing would be the way for you then, if you decide to publish one day, since there’s no other way to retain full control over your work. Fortunately, self-publishing is getting more and more recognition with a good deal of solid writers out there choosing this path.
Anyhow, I would like to see some of your stories officially published one day since they’re better than most of what can be found in various magazines. I was even inspired to write a new yarn of my own with a similar plot to this one. I’m still struggling with writing credible female characters and your stories provide an excellent insight from a female perspective.
If you ever decide to publish, good luck with it.
Thank you, Boar! And I’m glad I’m giving you some inspiration. 😉
[…] one sort or another. These are not erotica; few even mention sex, and in those that do (such as this month’s) it’s both demurely-described and over in a sentence or two. I suspect most Agitator […]