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Does not incldue side stories.", "count": "65", "submission_left_submission_id": "1497947", "submission_left_file_name": "2120909_TerraMGP_by_necessity_priorities_part_2.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1476560", "submission_right_file_name": "2088466_TerraMGP_by_right_duel.doc", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2088/2088466_TerraMGP_by_right_duel.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2088/2088466_TerraMGP_by_right_duel.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2088/2088466_TerraMGP_by_right_duel.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "Stayed up a bit late on this, but you'll see why. Another all plot no sex, But next story should be a new years one, hopefully on time. Then things can lighten up a bit Maybe.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Stayed up a bit late on this, but you'll see why. Another all  plot no sex, But next story should be a new years one, hopefully on time. Then things can lighten up a bit Maybe.", "writing": "By Right: Awakening\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tRuna missed the patterns. It was a rather odd thing to note. When she was younger there were times when she’d rest her weary eyes in the palms of her hands or rubbed them, and would see patterns. Small squares or triangles of dark and barely explicable colors cascading out and radiating from what she presumed to be the point of pressure. Never really the same and never staying for terribly long. But they were there, and for some reason she’d always found them a comfort.\n\n\tYet sitting here, now, in her personal quarters, Runa was forced to admit that her new eye did not produce the same effects. Whatever interaction existed between the jelly of her natural eyes and the lids was replaced by a HUD that seemed to insist upon remaining active for an annoying split-second after her eyes shut. The image all but burned into her brain. It was well crafted to be sure, and well integrated. But at times like this, at time when her mind reached out for little worries to dull the bigger ones, things like this became painfully pronounced.\n\n\tShe pulled herself up slowly and reluctantly as her eyes fell on the documents below her. Proposals, statistics, spreadsheets. The kinds of things Siv would normally be taking care of. The sum total of her failures chiseled inexorably into raw numbers and statistics before her eyes. An emotionless monument to her own ineptitude.\n\n\tIt wasn’t long before the world around Runa faded into the background. The familiar old study with shelves full of old hard copy tomes looming over her, the small flicker of a reading light set only a few candles high. Even the worn old oak desk that her mother had put in when she was a pup. Battered and well loved over centuries. An old friend baring witness to her shame.\n\n\tShe shut her eyes once more, just for a moment, as a small readout informed her that the procedure was still in the early phases. Bi was being prepped and the proper surgery was still at least an hour out. Last time it had been an hour and ten minutes. Before that an hour and twenty five. She shifted her eyes to a proposed staffing manifest and tried to give her undivided attention to he words before her. Feeling nothing but a growing frustration at her inability to find some comfortable well of distraction she could sink into.\n\n\tA faint sound snapped Runa from her focus. A scrape. He sound of metal on wood which drew her eyes downwards. She looked at the small tray set with a glass of thick red juice and several soft buns stuffed with thick slices of ham and a soft white cheese.\n\n\tThe badger who had brought the tray bowed slightly and took the glass of juice. Taking a small sip herself before setting it down and taking a half-step backwards. Awkwardly struggling to remain as unobtrusive as possible.\n\n\tThe whole scene made it hard not to simply bust out laughing. Runa watched the girl closely. Those twinned eyes tracing over her body even as she reached down and took the same glass. She took a theatrically quizzical sip of the cranberry juice, then paused, then took another. This time allowing herself to enjoy the tart liquid rather than the torment of her pet.\n\n\t“A-are you pleased, Mistress?” Eleanor asked softly. Small hints of anticipation mixed with the lingering terror in her voice.\n\n\t“I admit I am amused at least.” The wolf chuckled. “It’s been ages since I’ve had someone act as taster. Even then it was mere formality. I take it that Siv sent you here, girl?” she narrowed her eyes a bit. A soft edge still lingering on her words.\n\n\t“Yes Mistress.” Eleanor nodded softly.\n\n\t“I keep telling her I don’t need to be babied. I can order food when I wish it.” She took one of the small sandwiches, bit it, and then blinked in surprise when a moment later it was gone and her paw was already reaching for another one. The slight tremor in her fingers causing her to flinch. Hunger overtook pride and before long half of the dozen sandwiches were gone, chased by a cascade of juice that helped still some of the anxiety that had been churning in her stomach.\n\n\t“So.” Runa finally sighed turning back to her statistics. “Is there a reason you brought the food yourself?”\n\n\tIt took everything the poor cub had not to faint as she whined her confirmation. “Miss Siv is busy fitting them for ‘proper’ outfits, Mistress. She said it was important that they look the part. Then she said that she needs to teach them the suites inside and out. She was very strict about it. S-said something about making them both clean rooms with their tongues if they failed her.” Eleanor shifted and twitched on the sensible little flats Siv had put the girl into. The earlier fire and resistance she’d shown was thankfully not altogether absent. But it was pleasantly tempered by a healthy fear and anxiety.\n\n\t“She really is looking to find whatever little spot she can for you, isn’t she?” Runa laughed softly. I suppose next you’ll be in the kitchen with the cooks trying to learn how to prepare meals for me as well, or she’ll have you taking a rag and wood oil to the furniture in my dungeons.” The young woman laughed a moment and leaned back into the padded old oak chair. She savored the anxiety of the confused prey girl a moment longer and then sighed as she patted that barely tamed mop of light brown hair. A show of affection that was accepted after only a few moments of terrified reluctance.\n\n\t“Mistress?” Eleanor finally muttered meekly. Her chest heaving a bit as she dared to look up into those cold two-toned eyes. There was a near visible lump in her throat just above her collar as the words struggled to form themselves into coherent thoughts. “Forgive me but, have you heard any news about Jill? I-I mean Bi?”\n\n\tThe question nearly floored Runa. She paused a moment to collect herself even as her eyes fell back on the reports she had laid out before her. She ran her fingers along the girls cheek a moment and then shifted herself back up to a stiff and proper posture. “Ah, I almost forgot. You and Bi knew each other before entering my service, didn’t you?” she asked.\n\n\t“Yes Mistress.” That little spark of defiant indignation lingering at the back of Eleanor’s throat as she forced herself to keep posture. “I’m sorry. It’s probably wrong of me to worry or, or something.” she muttered.\n\n\tRuna sighed. She tilted the girls head up slowly, looking her in the eye. Stern, exacting, but not harsh. “Speak your mind, pet.” she said firmly.\n\n\t“Well, Mistress. It’s just that there weren’t many of us in the orphanage. Jill, Bi, Was always kind of a big sister. She was always kinda grown up compared to the rest of us. I, I don’t just mean age, either.” A small shuddery sigh slipped from Eleanor as she tried hard to regain her composure. “I admit that when the sirens went off I was, I was kind of suspecting that she went out there to protect us. I mean after the last time with the big scary men and the tank.”\n\n\t“I see.” Runa finally shifted in her seat and looked at her little slave. “So you think it was about more than demonstrating her loyalty to her owner?” a growl underpinning Runas words.\n\n\t“Yeah.” Eleanor whimpered softly.\n\n\tThere was a long pause, then a smile and a nod as Runa shifted fully to face Eleanor. “I would not be surprised. I imagine that she was close to most of you, was she not?”\n\n\t“Well me, Mistress. And the twi- the fa-, the boys.” Eleanor fumbled though the words hoping to find the one that would fit. The mask of good pet far too hard to wear at the moment. “The bat wasn’t from the orphanage, or the town for that matter. They already wanted her out.”\n\n\t“And the doe?” Runa asked.\n\n\t“She was already aged out of the orphanage. But nobody was going to miss her. Even when she was in the orphanage she was never very smart. Some of the other older kids liked her, but I think that’s just because some boys had a crush on her. I think.” Simply stating that fact for Runa seemed to make Eleanor uncomfortable in the extreme. She shifted around a bit and soon fell out of her proper position. The pudgy girl returning to a mass of meek ineptitude just as she’d been on the first day there. Only this time Runa made no move to correct or scold her. Simply allowing the poor cub to fight the weight of her own emotions.\n\n\tThe two fell silent for a long moment. The study seeming to devour the anxiety and awakrdnss being radiated out. Drinking it in to the well-finished walls and radiating it back out upon the pair. Both Mistress and slave stewed silently in this for the longest time. Eleanor not daring to look Runa in the face, Runa not daring to speak. Deep in some part of Runas mind she could feel the phantom tug of the old grandfather clock, even from so far away. The droning monotone bitter on her brain.\n\n\tFinally Runa reached to the plate and took one of the sandwiches from it. She guided it up to the cubs muzzle and held it in place, looking sternly at Eleanor until the girl took a bite. Much as Runa had before the badger quickly devoured the hambun, a small boll of bread nearly catching in her throat as she inhaled the little nutrient bomb.\n\n\t“You have not eaten lunch today have you girl?” Runa chided sternly.\n\n\t“I sat down to eat, Mistress. I was jus too nervous.” She confessed softly. “S-same with dinner.”\n\n\t“Dinner?” Runa quirked her brow.\n\n\t“It’s past dinner time, Mistress. I thought you knew. Miss Siv said that the procedure should be starting any time now. That’s why she wanted me to make sure you ate.” Even as the words left Eleanor’s mouth she winced and whimpered, looking down nervously at the hard wood flooring below her. “I don’t think I was supposed to tell you that.” She sighed.\n\n\t“No, you weren’t. Knowing Siv you were just supposed to stand here and discomfort me enough with your presence that I’d eat just to avoid a conversation. I will confess, little one. There is something disquieting about having a head slave who is such a devote Machiavelle.”\n\n\tEleanor nodded her agreement. The reference was clearly lost on her, but she got the meaning well enough. She looked down longingly at the tray of food for a moment before turning her eyes back to the floor directly before Runas feet. Her ears folding back and glasses nearly slipping off of her muzzle in the process. “It seems very obvious that she is concerned for you Mistress.” The girl winced and sighed ‘that was a kinda obvious statement, wasn’t it?”\n\n\tRuna chuckled a bit and nodded “It was. But a fair assessment all the same. I’ve had Siv as long as I can recall. I plan to have her my whole life long. I trust her. I simply know she’ll do what is best for me. Which is not always the same as what I’d want.” Runa leaned in and growled into her slaves ear “Not that you can be afforded such a luxury, Eleanor. I still expect obedience from my property, even if that’s the one area where my bunny sets a bad example.”\n\n\tAnother sharp nervous nod finally sent the glasses flying. Runa caught them and folded them up, slipping one arm into the neck of the badgers button-up blouse. She then turned back from the girl to the sheets, eyes scanning slowly for the spot where she’d left off.\n\n\t“Um, Mistress?” Eleanor chirped up nervously.\n\n\t“Yes, pet?” Runa sighed as she looked over her shoulder.\n\n\t“I’m sorry to ask, but I wasn’t really sure what your answer was before. You know, when I asked if, if Bi was going to be ok or not?” She swallowed hard and stiffened her back a bit trying to present herself as a textbook model slave.\n\n\tRuna finally pushed both AR and physical documents aside as she turned back to the badger and gripped her chin. Exasperation and desperation both playing on the wolfs lips as she shifted herself up a bit in her seat. “I suppose I didn’t really give you an answer, did I?” she muttered. “Currently Bi is being prepped for surgery. My personal physicians have had nothing else to focus on all week than her care. I am told the procedure will require twelve hours before we can be sure of her health. However I can’t foresee any major complications. I spoke with my brother about the details and while he’s far from an expert on the medical end of cybernetics, he assured me that it was all perfectly safe.”\n\n\tThe words came rather bitterly. Patronizing placations Runa was not at all used to. The same hollow assurances she’d felt Sean had given her when she asked him the same questions a few days ago. And yesterday. Then again this morning. From the look on her pets face, she didn’t buy it much either. Smart girl.\n\n\t“Why?” Eleanor was a bit quicker with the question this time. Her voice hovering between anxious bravery and terror.\n\n\t“Why?” Runa blinked.\n\n\t“I, well. Please don’t misunderstand, Mistress. I want her to be ok. More than anything. I really really do. B-but. But well the truth is that it seems like a long way to go. You’re super rich, and powerful too. The camp had a ton of guards when we showed up. I mean I don’t know how much cybernetic stuff really costs. Butt wouldn’t it be way easier to just spend that money and like, replace her?” Eleanor balked at the words even as she said them. Only curiosity seeming able to pry them from her. “I mean, for someone like you, from your point of view, it would make sense, right? E-especially since she failed you.”\n\n\t“She didn't fail.” Runa muttered under her breath.\n\n\t“I’m sorry Mistress?” Eleanor yipped both in confusion and fear.\n\n\tRuna pulled herself up from her seat now. The doubt and frustration seeming to melt off of her leaving the wolf once again standing as a pillar of strength and confidence. She gripped Eleanor again by the muzzle, firmly this time, looking down into those soft scared brown eyes. “What are you, girl?” She snapped briskly.\n\n\t“A slave, Mistress?” Eleanor asked.\n\n\t“You are a slave.” Runa nodded. “You are weak, and you are inferior, and you are lesser. You are owned. You are prey, at least to someone like me. You are a possession to be used. An object. Do you understand?” The question came slow and deliberate, hitting Eleanor with a fine acid tip, leaving the girl to just nod dumbfounded.\n\n\t“I understand, Mistress.”\n\n\t“You are no different from this.” Runa said as she took up a small steel stylus from the desk and held it before Eleanor’s eyes. “You may think, you may feel. You may have a will to be tempered. But at the end of the day you are to be used by your owner, just like any tool.” Runa all but snarled the words into Eleanor’s head. Watching those eyes for not jut understanding, but some level of acceptance. When she got it Runa leaned in closer, the two almost touching noses as she let her hot breath break on Eleanor’s face.\n\n\t“Now when a mistake is made filling out a document, what is at fault?” Runa snapped.\n\n\t“Pardon, Mistress?” Eleanor whimpered.\n\n\tIf I fill out a document. Sign an order. If I had papers in front of me to send a spear of Helblades into New Avalon space and open fire with little more than a check mark and a signature, who’s fault would it be should that order get signed? The stylus?”\n\n\t“N-no Mistress.” Eleanor whimpered confusedly.\n\n\t“Why not?” Runa pushed\n\n\t“Because, because it’s just a stylus.” Eleanor muttered\n\n\t“Just a stylus.” Runa agreed “Just a tool, an object. A tool can’t be blamed for the failings of the one who wields it. A possession has no choice but to obey, but she also has no responsibility but to obey. And when the mistakes of the hand holding the tool cause it to break?” Runa narrowed her yes, making it clear the question was not rhetorical.\n\n\t“I, I suppose I never thought of it that way, Mistress. I mean I guess I just figured, well, something.” She slumped a bit and looked back down at the floor as best she could. Her eyes only returning to Runa when the wolf refused to let her muzzle go. Instead the nervous girl simply shut her eyes tight and took a few deep breaths to bleed her growing anxiety. She instead caught herself on one of them as she felt something cool and smooth slipping behind her left ear.\n\n\t“Slaves are property. They are inferior. They can never be more than what the owner wishes. But a slave obeys. I expect you to remember that, little one.”\n\n\tHer pointt made, Runa took one last moment to ensure the stylus was set firmly behind the girls ear before turning back to the proposed upgrades for her little slave ranch. Her eyes once again examining every falw the analytics team had noted, and every counter measure proposed. “You may attend me for now, girl.” Runa noted softly “I may need someone to double check the logistical assessments, and Siv is clearly busy. Besides, I doubt I can finish all this food.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\tJen Dee took a few more deep breaths of the last fresh air she was likely to get today. She glanced down at the baggy insulated sleeves that hung from her own somewhat doughy arms and stopped centimeters short of the body glove separating outer suit from bare fur. Everything in her HUD said it was fine. Little green dots letting her know that the suit had been checked and rechecked by the computer dozens of times. As if asserting the nature of her fears would somehow cause them to lessen.\n\n\t“Kenna.” Jen muttered “Outline finalized procedures for patient Bi.” The mole muttered the words with a detached clinicism she only wished she felt. Thankful that the AI either didn’t know or didn’t care about tone.\n\n\t“Understood, doctor.” the chipper AI chirped. An image of a squirrel girl in a nurses uniform appearing in her HUD. Jen was quick to dismiss the avi in frustration. A gesture the AI itself seemed to not notice or care about. “Due to the nature of the injury and presence of life support systems in the armor, removal of the armor breastplate has become necessary in order to commence cryo-surgery. Patient Bi is currently in the final stages of a controlled freeze. Dr. Jorgensen will then proceed to remove the breastplate using a photonic micro cutter through the side armor.”\n\n\t“Not the seams?” Jen sighed.\n\n\t“A tertiary review by Dr. Jorgensen deemed that it would be faster to cut though the plate itself than to focus on the seams. This would create a wider margin of error for other phases of the surgery.”\n\n\tOf course. It made far more sense than it should, sadly. The arrogant hack probably figured the slight added risk of injury was worth it to shift the blame should something else go wrong. Would be nice if he’d have announced it before the eleventh hour, though. All she could really do was shrug and sigh as she leaned back a bit and started to pull one of the insulated gloves over her hand. The odd and unnaturally ‘normal’ temperature washing over her almost instantly. Thick composite materials at the hands with only a few days of shelf life, allowing her total manual dexterity in the operating theater. Not that she’d likely need it.\n\n\t“So have there been any other unexpected changes?” she asked with as polite a tone as she could manage.\n\n\t“Yes doctor” the voice replied back, unflappable as ever. “Dr. Bower will over see the incisions and the removal of the T11. He will then accompany you in the installation of the replacement prosthetic. Calculations estimate that the whole process should take a maximum of six hours not counting the theater warming and barring any severe complications.”\n\n\tThat last line made the young doctor flinch. She snapped her other glove into place in the near-sealed suit and gestured with her hand to see the patients char once more. Late teens, exceptionally physically fit. No cybernetics beyond a simple jack and none of the designer gene mods the kids in the slums around here seemed to favor. Not even the basic tweaking a Thanedottr slave would normally gain to be more useful. In theory it should be an easy job. They should also be working for the sole benefit of the patient. Life was full of should. Should have had the full outline ahead of time. Should have been able to count on her team to be professional. Should be able to do her work without worry of getting thrown in the line of fire any time something went wrong. \n\n\tThough really she wasn’t any better. Not when she was about to install a custom part she’d made months in advance save for a few modifications. Not when she played the game, passing off a painstakingly crafted slew of high end designs as custom to appease those with power. The funny thing was, one of her biggest reasons for fighting this hard was to make sure she never had to perform this kind of procedure personally. Gods but Jen hated these suits.\n\n\t “Well, girl.” The doctor sighed as she gave the chart one last look over. The medical index tied to her jack racing though a heavily personalized checklist at breakneck pace. “If nothing else, you seemed to impress Lady Runa enough to get a hell of a reward. Probably not the way you’d want it though, huh?” She laughed bitterly a moment and took one last heavy breath of real air before pulling the thick plastic cylinder helm over her head. She tweaked it closed with a click and winced as the thing hissed loudly. The seals rendering the whole assembly air tight and safe, with only a simple hose connecting her to anything resembling breathable. If nothing else she still got to save lives. What more could a doctor ask for?\n\n--------------------\n\n\tIt was hard for Runa to tell just how she should take it when she saw the lead Doctor walking in on her own. When her eye had been installed Runa recalled the whole team crowding around her, fawning and fussing in some pathetic effort to ingratiate themselves and claim some measure of credit. It was annoying, but if nothing else the fawning had assured her nothing had gone awry. Few in the tree would dare fall on their swords by taking the blame for a fuck-up on the scale of malpractice to their benefactor. It didn’t help that the mole was half an hour late, looked exhausted, and had the telltale bloodshot eyes of someone who had been speedballing stims.\n\n\t“Dr. Dee.” Runa nodded to the young woman, likely only a decade her senior. She stood from the large chair that dominated her common room and gestured to its twin at the opposite end of a large chess board table. The mole gave a small bow and then all but fell into the seat. For as bad as the poor woman looked, Runa was starting to suspect she was in fact worse.\n\n\t“I hope you can forgive my tardiness, My Lady.” The doctor said softly. “First, I don’t wish to keep you in suspense so I will simply get it out now. The operation was a complete success.”\n\n\tThe weight of weeks shattered and fell from Runas shoulders like so much rubble. She grinned wide and leaned back into her seat, a casual grin gracing her lips as she glanced momentarily at an equally relived-looking Eleanor standing at the left side of her chair. “Thank you Doctor. I confess I really do appreciate that kind of frankness. I trust it wasn’t too terribly complicated?”\n\n\tDr. Dee shook her head and offered a tired smile. “Thankfully no. At least no more than these kinds of surgeries tend to be. Once the armor was off it was a simple matter to get her prepped. Thankfully the part was printed perfectly and the artificial tissues connected perfectly. She will still require life support systems in a pod for at least a few more days, but that’s no different than it would be with many other less severe injuries. Frankly I think it’s very safe to say we are out of the woods with an excellent prognosis.\n\n\tAny hope the wolf had of keeping her composure shattered as she bit back a girlish squeal. She shot bolt upright in her seat and nodded happily to the exhausted doctor, barely able to keep herself contained. “I see. I presume you can have her current pod moved somewhere more comfortable until she does wake up, then?”\n\n\t“Already on it.” Dr. Dee nodded “Now I will be happy to go over rehabilitation with you in more detail later. But for now the basic outline is that it will require us to work though it all in stages. First ensuring respiration and basic organ functions still work properly with the new prosthetic and stress-testing it. Once we are positive she won’t have any serious issues due to malfunction, we can begin working to get her walking and using her hands again. The more advanced functions will take longer before we can really start teaching her how to use them. But I estimate she should have full basic motor skills returned to normal in six months with dedication. She’s healthy and I didn't detect any real underlying genetic issues that would complicate her rehab.”\n\n\t“How did I know ‘extra features’ were going to come into play with this.” Runa chuckled. “I swear if I wasn’t so thrilled with the work you people have been doing for me I’d start to worry you were upselling me or something. I’ve been getting the same song and dance from the Brokkr craftsman trying to redesign my blade.“ The wolf smirked playfully and leaned forwards with schoolgirl glee. “Now are there any complications I should be aware of? Anything to help make her more comfortable? Ways to aid the rehab?”\n\n\t“No, Lady Runa. Just time and care. I know that isn’t the most exciting thing but it’s one of those medical realities that simply does not change. Even with nanomachines and the latest synthetic to biological integration tech you still need to let the body heal naturally to some degree. You can only throw so many resources at the problem before mother nature has to take its course.”\n\n\t“Freya bless, I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing I ever expected to hear from a cyberneticist.” She laughed “Thankfully I think we should be able to accommodate that. If I may, though, I have to admit that I’m a bit shocked.”\n\n\t“Well I am still a Doctor, My lady.” The exhausted mole sighed. “It would be unethical to make promises of instant recovery or the like.”\n\n\t“Well no, not about that.” Runa laughed. “I mean that you’re the only one here. I mean if it’s a success I admit I rather expected the whole team to be falling over themselves for me. No offense.”\n\n\tJen cringed a bit upon hearing that and looked away slowly. Her body tensing as she tried to make herself turn back to the wolf.\n\n\tRuna growled, feeling her veins freeze.\n\n\t“Well, Lady Runa. Your pet is safe. However it seems that during the procedure one of the nurses managed to confuse the programming on the other pod. Your captive.” Jen swallowed hard and put on the bravest face she could manage. “I’m afraid she escaped. By the time the nurse could hail security, the Pangolin had already somehow slipped out, which is impressive enough considering the weight and restrictions of her new lower leg. Naturally the investigation for her is already in full swing, but I felt I had to inform you personally.”\n\n\tThe chill in her veins froze over as Runa slumped back into her seat. Hands once again starting to tremble as she simply looked up at Eleanor. “Go get Siv.” She growled. “now.”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "By Right: Awakening
By TerraMGP

\tRuna missed the patterns. It was a rather odd thing to note. When she was younger there were times when she’d rest her weary eyes in the palms of her hands or rubbed them, and would see patterns. Small squares or triangles of dark and barely explicable colors cascading out and radiating from what she presumed to be the point of pressure. Never really the same and never staying for terribly long. But they were there, and for some reason she’d always found them a comfort.

\tYet sitting here, now, in her personal quarters, Runa was forced to admit that her new eye did not produce the same effects. Whatever interaction existed between the jelly of her natural eyes and the lids was replaced by a HUD that seemed to insist upon remaining active for an annoying split-second after her eyes shut. The image all but burned into her brain. It was well crafted to be sure, and well integrated. But at times like this, at time when her mind reached out for little worries to dull the bigger ones, things like this became painfully pronounced.

\tShe pulled herself up slowly and reluctantly as her eyes fell on the documents below her. Proposals, statistics, spreadsheets. The kinds of things Siv would normally be taking care of. The sum total of her failures chiseled inexorably into raw numbers and statistics before her eyes. An emotionless monument to her own ineptitude.

\tIt wasn’t long before the world around Runa faded into the background. The familiar old study with shelves full of old hard copy tomes looming over her, the small flicker of a reading light set only a few candles high. Even the worn old oak desk that her mother had put in when she was a pup. Battered and well loved over centuries. An old friend baring witness to her shame.

\tShe shut her eyes once more, just for a moment, as a small readout informed her that the procedure was still in the early phases. Bi was being prepped and the proper surgery was still at least an hour out. Last time it had been an hour and ten minutes. Before that an hour and twenty five. She shifted her eyes to a proposed staffing manifest and tried to give her undivided attention to he words before her. Feeling nothing but a growing frustration at her inability to find some comfortable well of distraction she could sink into.

\tA faint sound snapped Runa from her focus. A scrape. He sound of metal on wood which drew her eyes downwards. She looked at the small tray set with a glass of thick red juice and several soft buns stuffed with thick slices of ham and a soft white cheese.

\tThe badger who had brought the tray bowed slightly and took the glass of juice. Taking a small sip herself before setting it down and taking a half-step backwards. Awkwardly struggling to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

\tThe whole scene made it hard not to simply bust out laughing. Runa watched the girl closely. Those twinned eyes tracing over her body even as she reached down and took the same glass. She took a theatrically quizzical sip of the cranberry juice, then paused, then took another. This time allowing herself to enjoy the tart liquid rather than the torment of her pet.

\t“A-are you pleased, Mistress?” Eleanor asked softly. Small hints of anticipation mixed with the lingering terror in her voice.

\t“I admit I am amused at least.” The wolf chuckled. “It’s been ages since I’ve had someone act as taster. Even then it was mere formality. I take it that Siv sent you here, girl?” she narrowed her eyes a bit. A soft edge still lingering on her words.

\t“Yes Mistress.” Eleanor nodded softly.

\t“I keep telling her I don’t need to be babied. I can order food when I wish it.” She took one of the small sandwiches, bit it, and then blinked in surprise when a moment later it was gone and her paw was already reaching for another one. The slight tremor in her fingers causing her to flinch. Hunger overtook pride and before long half of the dozen sandwiches were gone, chased by a cascade of juice that helped still some of the anxiety that had been churning in her stomach.

\t“So.” Runa finally sighed turning back to her statistics. “Is there a reason you brought the food yourself?”

\tIt took everything the poor cub had not to faint as she whined her confirmation. “Miss Siv is busy fitting them for ‘proper’ outfits, Mistress. She said it was important that they look the part. Then she said that she needs to teach them the suites inside and out. She was very strict about it. S-said something about making them both clean rooms with their tongues if they failed her.” Eleanor shifted and twitched on the sensible little flats Siv had put the girl into. The earlier fire and resistance she’d shown was thankfully not altogether absent. But it was pleasantly tempered by a healthy fear and anxiety.

\t“She really is looking to find whatever little spot she can for you, isn’t she?” Runa laughed softly. I suppose next you’ll be in the kitchen with the cooks trying to learn how to prepare meals for me as well, or she’ll have you taking a rag and wood oil to the furniture in my dungeons.” The young woman laughed a moment and leaned back into the padded old oak chair. She savored the anxiety of the confused prey girl a moment longer and then sighed as she patted that barely tamed mop of light brown hair. A show of affection that was accepted after only a few moments of terrified reluctance.

\t“Mistress?” Eleanor finally muttered meekly. Her chest heaving a bit as she dared to look up into those cold two-toned eyes. There was a near visible lump in her throat just above her collar as the words struggled to form themselves into coherent thoughts. “Forgive me but, have you heard any news about Jill? I-I mean Bi?”

\tThe question nearly floored Runa. She paused a moment to collect herself even as her eyes fell back on the reports she had laid out before her. She ran her fingers along the girls cheek a moment and then shifted herself back up to a stiff and proper posture. “Ah, I almost forgot. You and Bi knew each other before entering my service, didn’t you?” she asked.

\t“Yes Mistress.” That little spark of defiant indignation lingering at the back of Eleanor’s throat as she forced herself to keep posture. “I’m sorry. It’s probably wrong of me to worry or, or something.” she muttered.

\tRuna sighed. She tilted the girls head up slowly, looking her in the eye. Stern, exacting, but not harsh. “Speak your mind, pet.” she said firmly.

\t“Well, Mistress. It’s just that there weren’t many of us in the orphanage. Jill, Bi, Was always kind of a big sister. She was always kinda grown up compared to the rest of us. I, I don’t just mean age, either.” A small shuddery sigh slipped from Eleanor as she tried hard to regain her composure. “I admit that when the sirens went off I was, I was kind of suspecting that she went out there to protect us. I mean after the last time with the big scary men and the tank.”

\t“I see.” Runa finally shifted in her seat and looked at her little slave. “So you think it was about more than demonstrating her loyalty to her owner?” a growl underpinning Runas words.

\t“Yeah.” Eleanor whimpered softly.

\tThere was a long pause, then a smile and a nod as Runa shifted fully to face Eleanor. “I would not be surprised. I imagine that she was close to most of you, was she not?”

\t“Well me, Mistress. And the twi- the fa-, the boys.” Eleanor fumbled though the words hoping to find the one that would fit. The mask of good pet far too hard to wear at the moment. “The bat wasn’t from the orphanage, or the town for that matter. They already wanted her out.”

\t“And the doe?” Runa asked.

\t“She was already aged out of the orphanage. But nobody was going to miss her. Even when she was in the orphanage she was never very smart. Some of the other older kids liked her, but I think that’s just because some boys had a crush on her. I think.” Simply stating that fact for Runa seemed to make Eleanor uncomfortable in the extreme. She shifted around a bit and soon fell out of her proper position. The pudgy girl returning to a mass of meek ineptitude just as she’d been on the first day there. Only this time Runa made no move to correct or scold her. Simply allowing the poor cub to fight the weight of her own emotions.

\tThe two fell silent for a long moment. The study seeming to devour the anxiety and awakrdnss being radiated out. Drinking it in to the well-finished walls and radiating it back out upon the pair. Both Mistress and slave stewed silently in this for the longest time. Eleanor not daring to look Runa in the face, Runa not daring to speak. Deep in some part of Runas mind she could feel the phantom tug of the old grandfather clock, even from so far away. The droning monotone bitter on her brain.

\tFinally Runa reached to the plate and took one of the sandwiches from it. She guided it up to the cubs muzzle and held it in place, looking sternly at Eleanor until the girl took a bite. Much as Runa had before the badger quickly devoured the hambun, a small boll of bread nearly catching in her throat as she inhaled the little nutrient bomb.

\t“You have not eaten lunch today have you girl?” Runa chided sternly.

\t“I sat down to eat, Mistress. I was jus too nervous.” She confessed softly. “S-same with dinner.”

\t“Dinner?” Runa quirked her brow.

\t“It’s past dinner time, Mistress. I thought you knew. Miss Siv said that the procedure should be starting any time now. That’s why she wanted me to make sure you ate.” Even as the words left Eleanor’s mouth she winced and whimpered, looking down nervously at the hard wood flooring below her. “I don’t think I was supposed to tell you that.” She sighed.

\t“No, you weren’t. Knowing Siv you were just supposed to stand here and discomfort me enough with your presence that I’d eat just to avoid a conversation. I will confess, little one. There is something disquieting about having a head slave who is such a devote Machiavelle.”

\tEleanor nodded her agreement. The reference was clearly lost on her, but she got the meaning well enough. She looked down longingly at the tray of food for a moment before turning her eyes back to the floor directly before Runas feet. Her ears folding back and glasses nearly slipping off of her muzzle in the process. “It seems very obvious that she is concerned for you Mistress.” The girl winced and sighed ‘that was a kinda obvious statement, wasn’t it?”

\tRuna chuckled a bit and nodded “It was. But a fair assessment all the same. I’ve had Siv as long as I can recall. I plan to have her my whole life long. I trust her. I simply know she’ll do what is best for me. Which is not always the same as what I’d want.” Runa leaned in and growled into her slaves ear “Not that you can be afforded such a luxury, Eleanor. I still expect obedience from my property, even if that’s the one area where my bunny sets a bad example.”

\tAnother sharp nervous nod finally sent the glasses flying. Runa caught them and folded them up, slipping one arm into the neck of the badgers button-up blouse. She then turned back from the girl to the sheets, eyes scanning slowly for the spot where she’d left off.

\t“Um, Mistress?” Eleanor chirped up nervously.

\t“Yes, pet?” Runa sighed as she looked over her shoulder.

\t“I’m sorry to ask, but I wasn’t really sure what your answer was before. You know, when I asked if, if Bi was going to be ok or not?” She swallowed hard and stiffened her back a bit trying to present herself as a textbook model slave.

\tRuna finally pushed both AR and physical documents aside as she turned back to the badger and gripped her chin. Exasperation and desperation both playing on the wolfs lips as she shifted herself up a bit in her seat. “I suppose I didn’t really give you an answer, did I?” she muttered. “Currently Bi is being prepped for surgery. My personal physicians have had nothing else to focus on all week than her care. I am told the procedure will require twelve hours before we can be sure of her health. However I can’t foresee any major complications. I spoke with my brother about the details and while he’s far from an expert on the medical end of cybernetics, he assured me that it was all perfectly safe.”

\tThe words came rather bitterly. Patronizing placations Runa was not at all used to. The same hollow assurances she’d felt Sean had given her when she asked him the same questions a few days ago. And yesterday. Then again this morning. From the look on her pets face, she didn’t buy it much either. Smart girl.

\t“Why?” Eleanor was a bit quicker with the question this time. Her voice hovering between anxious bravery and terror.

\t“Why?” Runa blinked.

\t“I, well. Please don’t misunderstand, Mistress. I want her to be ok. More than anything. I really really do. B-but. But well the truth is that it seems like a long way to go. You’re super rich, and powerful too. The camp had a ton of guards when we showed up. I mean I don’t know how much cybernetic stuff really costs. Butt wouldn’t it be way easier to just spend that money and like, replace her?” Eleanor balked at the words even as she said them. Only curiosity seeming able to pry them from her. “I mean, for someone like you, from your point of view, it would make sense, right? E-especially since she failed you.”

\t“She didn't fail.” Runa muttered under her breath.

\t“I’m sorry Mistress?” Eleanor yipped both in confusion and fear.

\tRuna pulled herself up from her seat now. The doubt and frustration seeming to melt off of her leaving the wolf once again standing as a pillar of strength and confidence. She gripped Eleanor again by the muzzle, firmly this time, looking down into those soft scared brown eyes. “What are you, girl?” She snapped briskly.

\t“A slave, Mistress?” Eleanor asked.

\t“You are a slave.” Runa nodded. “You are weak, and you are inferior, and you are lesser. You are owned. You are prey, at least to someone like me. You are a possession to be used. An object. Do you understand?” The question came slow and deliberate, hitting Eleanor with a fine acid tip, leaving the girl to just nod dumbfounded.

\t“I understand, Mistress.”

\t“You are no different from this.” Runa said as she took up a small steel stylus from the desk and held it before Eleanor’s eyes. “You may think, you may feel. You may have a will to be tempered. But at the end of the day you are to be used by your owner, just like any tool.” Runa all but snarled the words into Eleanor’s head. Watching those eyes for not jut understanding, but some level of acceptance. When she got it Runa leaned in closer, the two almost touching noses as she let her hot breath break on Eleanor’s face.

\t“Now when a mistake is made filling out a document, what is at fault?” Runa snapped.

\t“Pardon, Mistress?” Eleanor whimpered.

\tIf I fill out a document. Sign an order. If I had papers in front of me to send a spear of Helblades into New Avalon space and open fire with little more than a check mark and a signature, who’s fault would it be should that order get signed? The stylus?”

\t“N-no Mistress.” Eleanor whimpered confusedly.

\t“Why not?” Runa pushed

\t“Because, because it’s just a stylus.” Eleanor muttered

\t“Just a stylus.” Runa agreed “Just a tool, an object. A tool can’t be blamed for the failings of the one who wields it. A possession has no choice but to obey, but she also has no responsibility but to obey. And when the mistakes of the hand holding the tool cause it to break?” Runa narrowed her yes, making it clear the question was not rhetorical.

\t“I, I suppose I never thought of it that way, Mistress. I mean I guess I just figured, well, something.” She slumped a bit and looked back down at the floor as best she could. Her eyes only returning to Runa when the wolf refused to let her muzzle go. Instead the nervous girl simply shut her eyes tight and took a few deep breaths to bleed her growing anxiety. She instead caught herself on one of them as she felt something cool and smooth slipping behind her left ear.

\t“Slaves are property. They are inferior. They can never be more than what the owner wishes. But a slave obeys. I expect you to remember that, little one.”

\tHer pointt made, Runa took one last moment to ensure the stylus was set firmly behind the girls ear before turning back to the proposed upgrades for her little slave ranch. Her eyes once again examining every falw the analytics team had noted, and every counter measure proposed. “You may attend me for now, girl.” Runa noted softly “I may need someone to double check the logistical assessments, and Siv is clearly busy. Besides, I doubt I can finish all this food.”

--------------------

\tJen Dee took a few more deep breaths of the last fresh air she was likely to get today. She glanced down at the baggy insulated sleeves that hung from her own somewhat doughy arms and stopped centimeters short of the body glove separating outer suit from bare fur. Everything in her HUD said it was fine. Little green dots letting her know that the suit had been checked and rechecked by the computer dozens of times. As if asserting the nature of her fears would somehow cause them to lessen.

\t“Kenna.” Jen muttered  “Outline finalized procedures for patient Bi.” The mole muttered the words with a detached clinicism she only wished she felt. Thankful that the AI either didn’t know or didn’t care about tone.

\t“Understood, doctor.” the chipper AI chirped. An image of a squirrel girl in a nurses uniform appearing in her HUD. Jen was quick to dismiss the avi in frustration. A gesture the AI itself seemed to not notice or care about. “Due to the nature of the injury and presence of life support systems in the armor, removal of the armor breastplate has become necessary in order to commence cryo-surgery. Patient Bi is currently in the final stages of a controlled freeze. Dr. Jorgensen will then proceed to remove the breastplate using a photonic micro cutter through the side armor.”

\t“Not the seams?” Jen sighed.

\t“A tertiary review by Dr. Jorgensen deemed that it would be faster to cut though the plate itself than to focus on the seams. This would create a wider margin of error for other phases of the surgery.”

\tOf course. It made far more sense than it should, sadly. The arrogant hack probably figured the slight added risk of injury was worth it to shift the blame should something else go wrong. Would be nice if he’d have announced it before the eleventh hour, though. All she could really do was shrug and sigh as she leaned back a bit and started to pull one of the insulated gloves over her hand. The odd and unnaturally ‘normal’ temperature washing over her almost instantly. Thick composite materials at the hands with only a few days of shelf life, allowing her total manual dexterity in the operating theater. Not that she’d likely need it.

\t“So have there been any other unexpected changes?” she asked with as polite a tone as she could manage.

\t“Yes doctor” the voice replied back, unflappable as ever. “Dr. Bower will over see the incisions and the removal of the T11. He will then accompany you in the installation of the replacement prosthetic. Calculations estimate that the whole process should take a maximum of six hours not counting the theater warming and barring any severe complications.”

\tThat last line made the young doctor flinch. She snapped her other glove into place in the near-sealed suit and gestured with her hand to see the patients char once more. Late teens, exceptionally physically fit. No cybernetics beyond a simple jack and none of the designer gene mods the kids in the slums around here seemed to favor. Not even the basic tweaking a Thanedottr slave would normally gain to be more useful. In theory it should be an easy job. They should also be working for the sole benefit of the patient. Life was full of should. Should have had the full outline ahead of time. Should have been able to count on her team to be professional. Should be able to do her work without worry of getting thrown in the line of fire any time something went wrong.

\tThough really she wasn’t any better. Not when she was about to install a custom part she’d made months in advance save for a few modifications. Not when she played the game, passing off a painstakingly crafted slew of high end designs as custom to appease those with power. The funny thing was, one of her biggest reasons for fighting this hard was to make sure she never had to perform this kind of procedure personally. Gods but Jen hated these suits.

\t    “Well, girl.” The doctor sighed as she gave the chart one last look over. The medical index tied to her jack racing though a heavily personalized checklist at breakneck pace. “If nothing else, you seemed to impress Lady Runa enough to get a hell of a reward. Probably not the way you’d want it though, huh?” She laughed bitterly a moment and took one last heavy breath of real air before pulling the thick plastic cylinder helm over her head. She tweaked it closed with a click and winced as the thing hissed loudly. The seals rendering the whole assembly air tight and safe, with only a simple hose connecting her to anything resembling breathable. If nothing else she still got to save lives. What more could a doctor ask for?

--------------------

\tIt was hard for Runa to tell just how she should take it when she saw the lead Doctor walking in on her own. When her eye had been installed Runa recalled the whole team crowding around her, fawning and fussing in some pathetic effort to ingratiate themselves and claim some measure of credit. It was annoying, but if nothing else the fawning had assured her nothing had gone awry. Few in the tree would dare fall on their swords by taking the blame for a fuck-up on the scale of malpractice to their benefactor. It didn’t help that the mole was half an hour late, looked exhausted, and had the telltale bloodshot eyes of someone who had been speedballing stims.

\t“Dr. Dee.” Runa nodded to the young woman, likely only a decade her senior. She stood from the large chair that dominated her common room and gestured to its twin at the opposite end of a large chess board table. The mole gave a small bow and then all but fell into the seat. For as bad as the poor woman looked, Runa was starting to suspect she was in fact worse.

\t“I hope you can forgive my tardiness, My Lady.” The doctor said softly. “First, I don’t wish to keep you in suspense so I will simply get it out now. The operation was a complete success.”

\tThe weight of weeks shattered and fell from Runas shoulders like so much rubble. She grinned wide and leaned back into her seat, a casual grin gracing her lips as she glanced momentarily at an equally relived-looking Eleanor standing at the left side of her chair. “Thank you Doctor. I confess I really do appreciate that kind of frankness. I trust it wasn’t too terribly complicated?”

\tDr. Dee shook her head and offered a tired smile. “Thankfully no. At least no more than these kinds of surgeries tend to be. Once the armor was off it was a simple matter to get her prepped. Thankfully the part was printed perfectly and the artificial tissues connected perfectly. She will still require life support systems in a pod for at least a few more days, but that’s no different than it would be with many other less severe injuries. Frankly I think it’s very safe to say we are out of the woods with an excellent prognosis.

\tAny hope the wolf had of keeping her composure shattered as she bit back a girlish squeal. She shot bolt upright in her seat and nodded happily to the exhausted doctor, barely able to keep herself contained. “I see. I presume you can have her current pod moved somewhere more comfortable until she does wake up, then?”

\t“Already on it.” Dr. Dee nodded “Now I will be happy to go over rehabilitation with you in more detail later. But for now the basic outline is that it will require us to work though it all in stages. First ensuring respiration and basic organ functions still work properly with the new prosthetic and stress-testing it. Once we are positive she won’t have any serious issues due to malfunction, we can begin working to get her walking and using her hands again. The more advanced functions will take longer before we can really start teaching her how to use them. But I estimate she should have full basic motor skills returned to normal in six months with dedication. She’s healthy and I didn't detect any real underlying genetic issues that would complicate her rehab.”

\t“How did I know ‘extra features’ were going to come into play with this.” Runa chuckled. “I swear if I wasn’t so thrilled with the work you people have been doing for me I’d start to worry you were upselling me or something. I’ve been getting the same song and dance from the Brokkr craftsman trying to redesign my blade.“ The wolf smirked playfully and leaned forwards with schoolgirl glee. “Now are there any complications I should be aware of? Anything to help make her more comfortable? Ways to aid the rehab?”

\t“No, Lady Runa. Just time and care. I know that isn’t the most exciting thing but it’s one of those medical realities that simply does not change. Even with nanomachines and the latest synthetic to biological integration tech you still need to let the body heal naturally to some degree. You can only throw so many resources at the problem before mother nature has to take its course.”

\t“Freya bless, I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing I ever expected to hear from a cyberneticist.” She laughed “Thankfully I think we should be able to accommodate that. If I may, though, I have to admit that I’m a bit shocked.”

\t“Well I am still a Doctor, My lady.” The exhausted mole sighed. “It would be unethical to make promises of instant recovery or the like.”

\t“Well no, not about that.” Runa laughed. “I mean that you’re the only one here. I mean if it’s a success I admit I rather expected the whole team to be falling over themselves for me. No offense.”

\tJen cringed a bit upon hearing that and looked away slowly. Her body tensing as she tried to make herself turn back to the wolf.

\tRuna growled, feeling her veins freeze.

\t“Well, Lady Runa. Your pet is safe. However it seems that during the procedure one of the nurses managed to confuse the programming on the other pod. Your captive.” Jen swallowed hard and put on the bravest face she could manage. “I’m afraid she escaped. By the time the nurse could hail security, the Pangolin had already somehow slipped out, which is impressive enough considering the weight and restrictions of her new lower leg. Naturally the investigation for her is already in full swing, but I felt I had to inform you personally.”

\tThe chill in her veins froze over as Runa slumped back into her seat. Hands once again starting to tremble as she simply looked up at Eleanor. “Go get Siv.” She growled. “now.”
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