Thesis Pt. 05

Chapter 15: The Garden Party

Course 8 / Day 6: Course Progress Meeting

Participant Notes: Fifty

Jo: No reason why Fifty should not be involved in today's "open day". Her basic skills are sufficient for any of the service tasks envisaged for supporting the day, rather than any of the tasks for which we will use the more experienced, second-course trainees. Everyone is set up to let the people from Clegg Enterprises to see what we're doing with their investment.

Jenny's Recollections

Actually, now that I come to think about it, there seems to be something going on: I'm even more sure about my feelings later, when the shutter to my cell goes up and there is no communal breakfast, either.

Anna comes with a tray that she leaves outside the bars of my cell. I have to kneel down and reach through the bars to get at the food; some fruit, a bread roll and a glass of orange juice. By the time Anna walks by with the next tray for the cell beside mine I've already finished eating. She smiles and picks up the empty tray without saying anything. And, I notice that Anna's nipples are also pierced – though her rings have obviously been there a while, perhaps since her first visit here - but her arm is dressed like mine.

I wash and shave, It's become a morning ritual. Nothing happens for quite a while. That's unusual. Usually we are out of our cells and working by now.

Then, things get very busy indeed. Carrie, Sue and I are collected by Jo. There is no time for niceties.

We're taken out of our cells. As I go through the door of mine, I hear a short beep and I realise that there is a sensor on the door frame registering the RFID chip in my arm. I can't get used to the fact that somewhere a computer can record each time I go from one room to another, noting down every time the chip in my arm passes one of their sensors.

"Right, you three," she says when we arrive in the main hall. "We want twenty chairs put out in rows over there. Then we need five tables each with six chairs, laid up for lunch and another row of tables to hold a buffet out on the terrace. When you've done that Fifty-two and Fifty will be waiting at table for lunch. You, Fifty-three, are to report to Ylena." I'm confused by what's going on and jealous that Sue has been chosen for Ylena, for whatever it is. Jo must know that Ylena is my Gaspazha.

Jo can see I am hesitating. "What is it Fifty? Was I not clear? Or do you want some demerits?"

"Yes, Mistress, I mean, no Mistress," I babble and scuttle off with Carrie and Sue to find the things that are needed. With the three of us working, it doesn't take us too long. By the time Jo returns, the room is laid out as she has ordered and we've laid up the tables on the terrace. As she comes into the room, the three of us stand waiting, our hands behind our backs. Ylena is with her. Jo makes a swift inspection of the room and declares herself satisfied.

"Well done, slaves," she says. "Sorry, Ylena they've earned no more demerits this time."

Ylena smiles. "Never mind," she says. "It's Fifty-three that's coming with me isn't it?" She reaches out, grips Sue by her wrist cuff and leads her away.

I want to yell out, "No! No, it's number Fifty, number Fifty is your slooga, it's me," but I can see it would do no good. Sue just nods and follows Ylena as she leaves the room.

Jo catches me watching them leave. "Is there not enough to interest you here, Fifty?" she asks.

"Sorry, Mistress," is all I can manage.

"Right. Now listen to me the pair of you. We have guests for lunch. People that are coming to see how we do things here. You two will be waiting at table as I said. This is what you will be wearing."

She passes us each a box. I'm excited, I haven't worn anything since I arrived. Even some fetish waitress uniform will be a wonderful change, I think. As I open the box, I realise I shouldn't have got my hopes up. There's a pair of Greek looking sandals, a strappy thing I don't recognise and a badge with the words, "Hi, I'm Fifty How Can I Serve You?"

"Put on your sandals and I will help you with your muzzles, Jo says. "And hurry up. Our guests will be here soon."

We do as she tells us. It doesn't take long. Then, Jo goes to work with the straps. First, she pulls a shaped leather piece across my mouth and the lower half of my face. There's a strap around my forehead, two others run up across the top of my head from just in front of my ears, two more straps go up either side of my nose to meet in the middle of my forehead and a single strap from there runs up over the top of my scalp. My head is caged in leather straps that hold the muzzle across my mouth very firmly in place. As Jo tightens the straps, it's clear that I can't even flex my jaw, much less say anything recognisable. It's a curious sensation. My whole head feels closed in, clamped tightly by the leather. This of course is typical of Inward Bound. Breakfast was quite a while ago, our tummies will be reminding us that we should be having some sort of lunch, mean-while we are going to be surrounded by much more interesting food that is given to us and we are going to be kept from temptation and even from conversation by a muzzle. Able to serve others, but kept securely in our places.

Once the muzzle is on, a belt goes around my waist and then she clips my wrists cuffs to it behind my back. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to wait at table, if I can't use my hands. But, with the muzzle across my mouth I can't ask, either. She follows this up with a strap around my elbows. Ouch! It's painful as she pulls it tight. It's good for my posture though, I guess, as it pulls my shoulders back.

Jo looks at me and nods with satisfaction before doing the same to Carrie. She has the two of us stand side by side and looks us over. I see her look down at the boxes. She realises that we aren't wearing our name badges and picks them up. She clips Carrie's badge to her collar and then turns to me. She's about to do the same but then she gets a worrying twinkle in her eye and she grins. She reaches up and clips it to my nose ring instead; the badge is just dangling in front of my muzzle. I don't know why I should feel this looks any more ridiculous than the rest of my outfit looks anyway, but I do. I manage a grunt of protest which Jo, of course, ignores.

"Good," says Jo. "Now we'd better get your trays." She leaves us for a moment and comes back carrying two trays and a series of lengths of chain. She starts off by fitting a tray onto me. The arrangement is quite ingenious. Two clips on the back edge of the tray fasten to rings on my belt, chains from the front two corners of the tray run up and clip to my collar. Jo fits a tray on to Carrie as well. "Now," she says. "Your job is simple. Just go to the servery over there. They will load your tray. You then walk out to the terrace and go around the tables, pausing at each to allow them to take anything that they want. I'm sure I don't need to tell you the consequence of dropping things, spilling things or upsetting our guests. I know you saw how disappointed Ylena was that none of you had earned any demerits yet." There's the sound of people chatting from outside the hall. "Right. Out of here. Go into the servery. You're waitresses, go and wait."

The two of us shuffle out as best we can, the trays swinging awkwardly from the waist clips and chains. I'm sure we'll not be able to carry anything to the tables. In the servery food is being organised, bottles of wine are being opened. The two cooks look up with an approving grin as we enter. I watch Carrie walk up and down, trying to get the hang of keeping her balance and keeping the tray steady. I decide that's a smart move and do the same thing myself.

Through the door from the servery, I can hear a presentation going on. Jo and Gerry are talking, describing the regime that we have here and how they expect their charges to behave. There is another young woman that I have not met, although I have seen her in the house. She seems to be in overall charge. I try to get a bit closer to hear more of what's going on. As I reach the door there's a beep – another sensor, detecting my chip, I realise. Moments later, one of the "keepers" is at my side.

"I don't think you're needed here, are you, Fifty," he says. "Why don't you get back to what you're supposed to be doing?" I realise he's been alerted by the RFID monitoring system. They really do know where I am and where I should, or shouldn't be. He takes me firmly be the arm and leads me away from the presentation room.

Eventually, the presentation finishes. There's a round of applause. Charlotte appears at the door of the servery and gives a thumbs up sign to the cooks. One of them nods and beckons Carrie and me across. "Right, you two," he says. "Time to go to work. I hope you've got the hang of those outfits." He starts to load food onto my tray, bowls of tasty looking nibbles. It's all I can do to stop myself drooling, but my muzzle at least makes sure I don't. So much of the food we've had has been rather Spartan, still, I'm loosing my puppy fat and that can't be a bad thing.

"Off you go," he says, giving my naked backside a pat. "Come back when they've finished that lot."

I start towards the door. It's difficult moving quickly and coping with the tray, but I manage it. A door from the servery leads into the hall. The door has been wedged open and a screen now stands in front to defend the servery from full public view. I snake my way through, managing to keep the tray steady and glad I do not have to push the door open with my shoulder.

In the main hall some groups are still chatting, but most of the audience has moved out onto the terrace. I can sense that our visitors are watching me, as I make my way towards the French doors that lead out to the terrace. Groups are sitting around the tables, chatting away. The sun is shining. I feel it warm on my naked skin and I'm suddenly aware that I'm out in the open air, in full view, naked, bound, and gagged. I stop, startled for a moment by my situation. I look around. The terrace looks out across parkland. There's not another house in sight, just the shrubs and trees of the garden. It is,of course, just as I remember it from yesterday. I recover myself and focus once more on my task. It looks like there's two or three of the faculty on each table, two or three guests. I make my way to the nearest.

Jo and Gerry are holding forth whilst a blonde rather cool woman, is questioning them. "So, do you find there is much of a drop out rate?" the woman asks and then says, "Ah, good, food," as I arrive alongside her. She picks a selection of snacks from my tray and puts them on her plate. She turns back to Gerry, ignoring me. "I'd have thought that might be a problem."

"No, Doctor Jordan," Gerry is his usual expansive self, "once they're here they seem to like it. We do try to make sure they know what they are in for before they come and we try to screen out those that we don't think will stay the course. I don't think we've had more than two drop out since we started."

"Maybe you aren't making things hard enough for them," the black woman says with a mischievous grin. I edge a little further around the table. Gerry takes some food. Jo joins the conversation.

"Don't forget our participants are all here willingly," she says. "There's a narrow line between giving them a stretching experience and having them feeling they're being abused."

"And, ah repeat business?" continues Dr. Jordan.

"Yep, we are now getting a trickle of slaves coming back for what you might call further training – in fact we have a couple of them right now., A second course is more challenging for us, because we have to be ingenious enough to work out some different moves and I guess this is one of the areas where we would place further investment."

I've got as far as the woman Jerry referred to as Doctor Jordan. She helps herself from my tray. It's getting lighter and that makes things easier as far as I'm concerned. I'm about to move on when she tells me to stop. She reaches up to the badge hanging from my nose ring and twists it so that she can see what it says. She smiles and lets it go. She turns back to Jo, "So, are all your programmes based on behavioural techniques, or do you ever need to use drugs in any way?"

Jo looks shocked. "No. No, nothing like that. It's all just based on conventional training approaches. It's much like we use on the corporate side of the business,. with some adjustments, of course, as you've seen." Gerry takes some food and my tray is more or less empty. I'm still standing by the table. Jo looks at me and waves me away impatiently. I head back to the servery.

Inside, my tray is loaded up again and I return to the hall and my shoulder and arms are stiff from being strapped as they are and my neck is stiff too from taking the weight of the tray. As I emerge from the servery, I see Ylena look up at me and instinctively stiffen my posture. I will show her what good slave I can be, how well I can do as I am told. I am sure there must have been some mistake that she took Sue this morning. She could not have forgotten that I am her slave. She must know how it makes me feel to see her with another slave. Or, perhaps she does... My rational, analytical, self resurfaces from the depths. I am not the only slave here. Ylena is here doing a job. She's not here as my personal coach. I am paying for this – well actually Angela's endowment fund is paying for this - and I am an academic research worker doing under cover field work. There, I feel better for that! But I still feel jealous about Ylena...

Carrie is working her way around a table, much as I had before. I take my tray to another table. Charlotte is talking with some of the guests. There's a youngish looking man, in his mid thirties, I guess, a woman in her late twenties and a very cool looking woman with piercing eyes. "Did you see all you wanted to this morning, Elly?" Jo says.

The cool looking woman responds. "Mm, yes, thanks. You've got an interesting set up here. It just shows that if you get what you offer right, you'll get people to sign up for it."

"That's what marketing is all about, Elly," the man chimes in. "I think that Corinne has got her product pretty much right."

I move around to let Elly select some food. The younger woman, Corinne, - the one who seemed in charge during the presentation earlier - smiles modestly. "I'd like to pretend that we'd thought it all out before hand," she says, "but really, it's grown up bit by bit. One of the things this investment is doing is to let us think properly about the way we do things. And, I have been particularly careful to have the right people with the right sort of special expertise, for example Ylena and Celia."

"Yes," replies Elly, "I have been admiring Celia's work. I do like your slave's pierced nipples! Very neatly done. And, this one's nose ring, too!" She gestures at me. I blush, but I am almost proud to have been noticed.

"Mmmm," continued Corrine. "Well it seemed the right thing to do. I asked Celia to make sure they were all done for your coming." She turns towards the man. "You know Larry, your people are all surprisingly well tuned in to all this. I'd expected them to be a bit shocked, I guess, but they're all taking it in their stride."

Larry doesn't respond to this, but Charlotte gestures to me to take my tray around to the man. "Have something to eat, Larry," she says.

The man smiles but shakes his head. "It all looks great, but this sort of stuff is a disaster for me," he says. "I just have to look at it and I can hear the weight going on. I like the waitress though." He reaches out and runs a finger down the outside of my thigh. I'm shocked by his casual acceptance of the way I'm standing naked, muzzled and helpless beside him. "How come she's naked while the other one gets to keep her clothes? "

Charlotte grins. "Number Fifty here didn't follow instructions when she joined, I'm afraid, and now she's paying the price. We like our guests to see that what happens to them springs at least in part from their own behaviour. That was one of Corinne's basic ideas when she set this up." Charlotte catches me listening to their conversation. "You've finished here, Fifty," she says. "Take what's left back."

I make my way back towards the servery winding my way between the tables, catching snippets of conversation as I go. "Well, yes, the cells are pretty basic, but we think that's the best way to get them used to the idea of slavery early on." ... "Yes, the extra investment will let us build another 5 cells, so we can double the number of participants on a course. We'll start the construction at the end of this course." ... "We try to make sure that they are kept busy. Of course, we get the benefit of their efforts for the other business, but that's not really the purpose of it." ... "And, you're finding that there are enough coming forward to fill the places you've got?" ... "Yes, we've got enough enquiries, so that we can fill ten places on the next three courses and we're finding that quite a few of our 'guests' want to come back for a second course; it's addictive!" ... "Tell me about the RFID implants you have been placing. Have you always done that or is that new?" The two groups, the faculty and the visitors, seem to be getting on famously. As far as I can tell the event has been a success.

It's evening now and I'm back in my cell, "officially" running through the day's events in my mind in preparation for my research report, but actually looking critically at more personal feelings.

I really enjoyed today: being naked and noticed by the guests, being tempted by food but restrained from satisfying myself. Enjoying doing a simple job really well. Enjoying being obedient and being seen to be obedient. I could really be at home in this environment. But then, this could not last for ever, could it? It's odds-on that sooner or later being a humble domestic would pall and I would pine for something more challenging. And then, there's Joe. Wouldn't it be wonderful if somehow I were doing it to please him? Or, he had sent me here and what I did for Inward Bound, I were really doing for Joe.



Chapter 16: Getting What She Came For

FCE Internal Memo:

Confidential: Elly to Larry

Freddie and I have just discussed the team's views after the Inward Bound event.

We are all very impressed with what has been achieved. The infrastructure and investment are both very much in order, but the crucial issue is the quality and (in this case) the originality of the staff and that's excellent. All in all, our visit confirms the feelings expressed at the Board Meeting: this is a very important initiative and we are happy to do what is necessary to protect and nurture this project.

Course 8 / Day 12: Course Progress Meeting

Participant Notes: Fifty

J: She has handled the cleaning and domestic duties reasonably, It should be time for her to move her experience up a level. Further session planned with Ylena for today.

Jenny's Recollections

I'm told that I have to go again to see Ylena, my Gaspazha. I imagine it will involve another beating. But, somehow, I long to see her again; to hear her soft, insistent voice. One of the escorts comes to take me from my cell. He tells me to face the wall and draws a broad belt around my waist. He buckles it tightly. He takes my wrists and cuffs them behind my back. He slips the hasp of a padlock through the staple on the buckle and clicks it shut.

"Turn around, Fifty," he says flatly.

I see he's holding a leather dog's leash. He clips it to my nose ring. "Are you enjoying this, Fifty?" he says.