Prologue: Cage Shopping

Emily poked at her scrambled eggs miserably; pushing them around her plate more than eating them. Her father John sat across from her scraping the last of his own eggs off the plate with a corner of toast while her mother Caroline stood at the sink washing the dishes. Ordinarily a beautiful Saturday morning like this at the start of July would have filled Emily with excitement and the promise of a whole day without school or responsibilities. As it was however, Emily was eyeing the clock. In just over an hour she and her mother were due at the pharmacy for her chastity cage fitting.

Chastity was, unfortunately, something that Emily was extremely familiar with. She had worn a cage at her parents' absolute insistence for as long as she could remember. It wasn't uncommon, at least in more conservative households for trans girls like herself to be locked on an effectively permanent basis. In theory it was to encourage a more feminine mindset and to decrease bottom dysphoria by effectively removing erections. In Emily's experience it just left her perpetually horny.

Emily's cages had always very secure - her parents had never gone in for cheap plastic or silicone. Her parents were strong believers in the simple strength of steel. Emily had pushed hard for one of the new carbon fibre cages when they had come out. Between riding her bicycle, running, and soccer she was a capable amateur athlete and the new carbon cages were nearly weightless and advertised as being just as secure as steel.

It wasn't to be. The more she had suggested, cajoled, and begged the more convinced they had become that the carbon cage had some secret weakness or flaw that she had been looking to exploit, and the more resolute in their refusal her parents had become.

No, her cages had been almost universally as boring as they were restrictive: A simple steel ring that wrapped around her penis and testes, and a steel tube that fully enclosed her admittedly petite shaft. The whole thing was held in place by a titanium locking pin with a nigh-unpickable lock. It was as simple as it was effective and Emily didn't really even notice the extra weight of it these days.

As frustrating as the denial was, the cage itself was well designed and quite comfortable. Much as she hated to admit it, it was simply a part of her. She was fitted for a new cage yearly, each cage slightly smaller than the one before, each so well-fitted that she barely noticed it unless she tried to become aroused. This fitting was for a different reason, however.

Emily's life was about to change. She was off to the prestigious Rattangrove Academy, one of the finest post-secondary institutions in all of Hartia. A college very much in line with her parents views on corporal punishment and chastity, admittedly, but still an exciting new chapter in her life. To be out on her own, away from her parents' supervision and strict rules... Emily kept her letter of admission under her pillow, and she still fell asleep hugging it on occasion. To say she was excited was very much an understatement.

Rattangrove would mean chastity, just as life at home would. Any school where her chastity wouldn't be strictly enforced had been simply unacceptable to her parents. As part of the preparations, Emily had to be fitted for her school cage, which meant going to see the chastity nurse at the pharmacy with her mother. As excited as she was for Rattangrove, this was not one of the parts she was looking forward to.

So it was that Emily gloomily climbed into the passenger seat of her mother's car and endured a short lecture about being on her very best behaviour. She knew better than to sigh or roll her eyes, but she was nearly twenty and she didn't need this lecture anymore. Happily the pharmacy wasn't far, so her mother didn't have the time to really get going. It was nothing Emily hadn't heard before, but she hated going to this particular pharmacy and she prayed no-one there would recognize her.

This wasn't like the other pharmacies in town. Every pharmacy would have at least a small section devoted to her... particular needs of course, but not like this. This store specialized in the particular services that the parents or guardians of a trans girl would require. She supposed that you could also get Aspirin or gum or a bottle of water there as well, but neither she nor her friends would be caught dead in that place unless they absolutely had to be there.

Emily had made the appointment herself for 8:00AM, right as they opened, for two reasons. First, and most importantly, she had wanted to make sure the store was as empty as possible; early morning was her best bet for that. Second she really wanted to see Brianne today rather than anyone else. Brianne wasn't a pharmacist, she was a cage fitter, and to Emily's mind she was the best of them. Emily had seen plenty of different fitters at the pharmacy, but Brianne had warm hands and a kind demeanor that had endeared her to Emily right away. As they pulled into the lot, Emily was relieved to see that they were the only car parked out front.

It wasn't a large or terribly busy place, not like the mega-pharmacies that doubled as small grocery stores or the ones with amazing cosmetics sections. A Domestic Discipline section, well stocked with the latest in paddles, straps, canes, and restraints occupied one wall. A pair of doors at the end of that wall marked the soundproofed "Try Before You Buy!" testing rooms. Emily had been inside those before, and she hoped that with her departure to Rattangrove so close that she would never have to see the inside of one of those awful rooms again.

Along the back wall was the actual pharmacy itself. The pharmacy specialized in hormone replacement therapy and anything else that the local trans population might need, and Emily actually got along really well with the pharmacist. She just much preferred her prescriptions came by mail. Being seen in the pharmacy section wasn't that embarrassing, at least not in comparison to where they were headed today, but she'd rather not have to come to this place at all.

Emily and her mother turned left as they entered the store, headed for the chastity section. They passed a colourful display, selling small disciplinary buttplugs: Make Corner Time Learning Time! Try Professor Magma's Habanero and Ginger Root Single-Use Plugs Today! Professor Magma looked like a manic anthropomorphized volcano with a monocle and a top hat made of lava. He seemed far too pleased with himself for Emily's comfort. She didn't like the look in his beady little eyes, and no-one should be that excited about what those vicious little things did to a girl's most sensitive hole.

This part of the store was fully stocked with a nearly endless variety of chastity devices. Cages seemed most common but there were still some old-school belts and worryingly the permanent, riveted-on devices that a girl needed to be pierced for. They came in nearly every colour of the rainbow, displayed on glass shelves inside gleaming display cases. Steel, silicon, plastic, they came in virtually every material on the market. Emily's eyes were immediately drawn to the carbon fibre sports cages, but she wasn't getting into that fight with her mother again so soon.

This morning the chastity section was mercifully empty. Brianne was standing behind one of the display cases taking a cage out of locked cabinet and she smiled at both of them as they approached. Emily smiled back with genuine warmth. Brianne was a tall woman in her mid-30s with copper coloured hair and light brown eyes whose professional manner was always tempered with a particular warmth. .

Today Brianne was wearing a leather skirt and a lime green tube top, along with a pair of modest black pumps. Emily often saw her wearing a white lab coat over her street clothes, but with the warm summer weather Brianne hadn't bothered with the coat today. She looked sharp if a little casual, but it was Saturday after all. She straightened up to her full height and gave them a wave of welcome.

"Caroline! Emily! So wonderful to see you both this morning! Can I offer either of you a coffee?"

Emily's mother accepted, though Emily declined. She just wanted to be out of here before anyone saw her, and she didn't trust her already-jittery stomach with coffee. Her mother sipped her coffee and Emily crossed her arms sulkily in front of her as Brianne explained Rattangrove's particular requirements regarding chastity.

"The Academy has a standard pattern cage, which you are required to buy. After the first six months, and whenever the cage needs swapped out for a different size or colour the Academy has a $25 administration fee. It's a great deal for you, as it's far below the cost of a new cage and they will handle the fitting themselves."

Emily's mother nudged her pointedly to make sure she was listening as Brianne continued. "Emily can wear her current cage to the school, and we will ship her school cage directly to Rattangrove before the school year begins. You'll get her old cage back in the mail, though most parents prefer to keep their daughters in their Rattangrove cages year-round." Brianne finished.

Emily grimaced, glancing furtively over her shoulder. "Can we please get this over with?" She asked. She saw her mother's eyes narrow. She hadn't meant for her voice to sound so petulant and whiny, but she just wanted to get off of the main sales floor before anyone came in and saw her there. She gave her mother what she hoped were innocent puppy dog eyes and forced the whine out of her voice. "Pretty please?"

Her mother sighed, but Brianne smiled and waved them both into the private fitting rooms behind the counter, drawing the curtain closed behind her. This room was smaller, with rows and rows of small drawers occupying one wall, each filled with chastity cages of slightly different designs and dimensions. There were a few utilitarian plastic chairs near the door, and posters advertising various chastity cage designs and manufacturers hung on the walls. Brianne walked over to that wall and opened a drawer while Emily and her mother stood waiting.

A Locked Girl Is A Happy Girl! One such poster proclaimed, featuring a beautiful blonde model in a bright blue cage smiling broadly for the camera. Emily trusted her smile less than she Professor Magma's. Another poster made her breath catch in her throat.

The Motivator: A Cage For Good Girls, At Last! The tagline was lame, but the cage itself was incredible. Emily had seen cages like this before, a handful of her friends had them. Rather than the simple steel tube of her own cage, this cage was designed more like, well, a cage. Thin steel rods formed the tube section with small gaps between them. Gaps that were just wide enough that she would be able to touch, if only a little.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the poster her mother was looking at. Titanium! The Ultimate in Peace of Mind! The poster depicted a most definitely not-smiling model wearing a chunky, uncomfortable-looking cage. It was flat, bare metal -- a smoky coppery colour that didn't even have the bright silvery sheen of polished steel. It looked like a medieval torture device more than the latest and greatest in technology. The price was staggeringly expensive as well.

"Brianne?" Emily's mother asked. "Does Rattangrove allow titanium cages?"

"Hmmm..." Brianne paused in her search through the drawer for a moment. "They do, but you'll have to sign a waiver. Plus whenever Emily needs her cage changed out you'll have to buy a new one; the school won't have a supply of titanium cages on hand yet, they're much too new."

Emily's mother tapped her foot on the clean tile floor in annoyance. "I suppose that makes sense. Why are they so expensive?"

Brianne went back to her work as she explained. It seemed as though she had given this explanation enough times to know it by rote. "Well titanium is stronger than steel and lighter too. It's totally impervious to rust, tampering, cutting, really anything a horny and determined girl might attempt. We've had titanium locking pins for years now, of course. But titanium is both expensive and really difficult to work with, especially to get the exact sizing a chastity cage needs to be really secure."

"Hmm..." Emily's mother said, absent-mindedly swirling the last few mouthfuls of coffee round and round in the paper cup. "Sounds like they're perfect, apart from the price."

Brianne closed the drawer, walking back to them with a few different cages as well as a tape measure, some calipers, and some sanitizing wipes. "Hmmmm. Yes and no, Caroline. Titanium really is a wonder, but it's tricky to work with, difficult to size precisely, and it's really only meant for locked women who have finished shrinking. Emily is going to keep getting smaller, and you don't want to be paying for a new titanium cage every year."

Brianne took Emily's chastity key from her mother and sat down on a wheeled stool in front of Emily. "Go ahead and get undressed, Em. You know the routine." She said, gently.

Emily didn't bother arguing. She slipped off the clothes she had been wearing, apart from her shoes and the very cute argyle socks she had just bought. She had just the tiniest crush on Brianne, and she wanted her to notice her cute socks. She blushed a tiny bit, though Brianne had seen her nude several times before.

Sadly, Brianne was all business, and she unlocked Emily's pink cage without comment, sliding the tube free from Emily's long-denied skin with a gentle motion. Embarrassingly Emily whimpered with pleasure at the sensation, just as she always did. If Brianne noticed her little outburst she gave no sign of it, using the sanitizing wipes to clean and sterilize Emily's soft penis and the area around it.

The wipe was cold and Emily knew it contained a numbing agent to prevent her from feeling much or even getting hard. She knew that she had to be totally soft for the fitting, but having her ability to get hard taken away was still a little humiliating.

"Hands on your head." Brianne instructed her, not looking up. Emily folded her hands together just above the base of her ponytail as Brianne used the calipers and tape measure to precisely measure the dimensions of Emily's petite member.

"Three sixteenths of an inch shorter than last measurement, and the tiniest bit narrower too." She said with some small satisfaction. She looked up, meeting Emily's eyes and then gave the skin just behind the head of her penis a sharp pinch.

Emily didn't flinch. She had been expecting this and she didn't really feel anything. Maybe a bit of dull pressure but certainly not pain.

"Right. You can take your hands off your head and take off the ring, Em. Let's get this new cage on you."

The pinch had been a test, to make sure that Emily was numb enough to be trusted to take off her own ring. This was part of why she had really wanted Brianne for this; taking off or putting on the ring was by far the most physically uncomfortable part of this process. Brianne always let her do it herself, as long as she was numbed. Most of the rest of the staff insisted on doing it for her, which was always uncomfortable if not outright painful.

"Okay, Em." Brianne explained, holding out a white steel cage that looked similar to her current one, if a different colour and the tiniest bit smaller. "This is the standard Rattangrove cage. Carbon steel, internal locking pin, not really all that different from what you were wearing when you came in today. Your ring size shouldn't have changed much, but we can check that later. See how this one fits."

Emily gently eased the ring over her extremely full and sensitive orbs. She'd last been unlocked in April and she felt like she was swollen with nearly three months of denial. First one swollen teste then the other, each barely fitting through the ring. She knew it had to be tight to be comfortable and secure, but it was a really close fit. Finally she had it in place, and she pulled the loose skin of her scrotum through the ring so that it hung loose and comfortable in front.

Brianne slid her finger between the ring and Emily's body. It just barely fit, and Emily squirmed slightly with the discomfort. She felt her mother's hand on her bare shoulder and she looked back, expecting to see reproach, but her mother was simply concerned. Emily gave her a small smile of reassurance and went back to watching Brianne at her work.

Brianne applied a small amount of lubricant to her hands and applied it to Emily's soon-to-be-locked parts. Emily made a sound of desperate frustration from the back of her throat. Brianne was most certainly attractive, and with her tube top Emily had a decent view of her chest. More to the point Brianne was touching her in a particularly intimate way, but the numbing agent did its work. She felt nothing, and somehow nothing was the bitterest sensation of all under the circumstances.

Once Emily was clean and lubricated Brianne slid the white steel tube onto Emily and it snapped into position with a sharp, metallic click. As Brianne moved her hands away the cage seemed to fit perfectly, not at all different in feel to the cage Emily was used to, but Brianne wasn't satisfied yet.

Brianne was already poking and prodding her, checking the fit precisely. She tapped the cage with her fingernail, ran her fingertips around the base ring, and slid a small metal rod into the hole at the tip to see just how much "room to grow" there was.

"I think we could go a quarter size narrower." Brianne said thoughtfully after a minute. She quickly unlocked Emily's cage, removed the tube, and replaced it with one that, to Emily at least, looked identical to the first. She repeated the procedure from before of checking the fit before leaning back on the stool and looking up with a smile at Emily's mother.

"That'll do it, Mrs. Black. Emily is right on the curve of where she should be in terms of penile atrophy. This size should do perfectly until her first cage change at the end of the semester."

"Thank you as always, dear." Caroline's voice was soft and polite. "Would it be too much trouble to try a titanium cage as well?"

"Of course, Mrs. Black." Brianne replied with a smile. She used her heels to roll the stool over to the row of cabinets on the wall, and opened one. "Emily has always been... petite..." She began.

"You can just say small, dear." Emily's mother replied as her daughter shot a vicious glance at her.

"As you like, Mrs. Black. As I was saying, this is as... small... as they make the titanium models, but we'll give it a try.

Emily hated the cage from the very beginning. While the steel models had slim, rounded rings the titanium was chunky with squared corners. Emily couldn't imagine walking comfortably in it, let alone running. The cage itself was even worse. Emily knew she was on the small side, but even for her this cage would give her a bulge that would be impossible to hide. She took a few steps forward in it, and she could feel the corners digging into her skin. She couldn't imagine having to wear this for a whole semester.

"Mom... Please no! I... I can't wear this!" Emily begged her mother. "It's awful and uncomfortable and I hate it!" She tried to explain but it came out as begging. She let out a low, keening whine to emphasize her point.

"That's what you said about your first cage, and you got used to it well enough." Her mother's voice was firm, with a touch of warning to it. Make a fuss and your bottom will be paying the price the moment I get you home it said. Emily knew the tone well and forced herself to hold her tongue.