The Flesh Trade, pt. 1: Mason
#1 of The Flesh Trade
info: This story is a request for Lupercus Whitewolf It deals with a rather successful and prideful border collie who ends up captured and shown his rightful place by a truly superior Lupine Master. This was originally meant to be one story but morphed into a series of what I plan to be very short stories (by my standards). The first chapter deals with introducing Mason, the border collie.
The Flesh Trade
by, WolfHound Baxton
Part 1: Mason
Servicorps was by all appearances a successful business. It was the joint venture of one Alan Baxter, a black wolf, and Mason, a very intelligent border collie with a lot of financial capital. The business dealt with the harvest, training, and selling of slaves. This was doable thanks to the loose immigration and foreign labor laws of the Republic of Bastana, the island nation where Servicorps was based. Bastanian law allowed foreigners to freely migrate to the country by signing a labor contract that essentially turned them into indentured servants, giving their emploters free rein to do anything they wished with their minds and bodies. This contract was normally temporary but contracts of twenty or thirty years or even life were not unheard of.
The prospective "guest worker" was promised an easy life on an island paradise where their employers would see to their housing and meals. Longer contracted guest workers were even given a small stipend by the Republic. Sadly, enforcement of core standards for these workers was often lacking. In essence, they were slaves, completely at the whim of their Masters. This was how they were colloquially referred to by those on the street, no matter their official title, and some businesses like Servicorps openly labeled and even marketed its stock as such.
The largest slaveholder in Bastana by far was Augustine Enterprises, owned by the fabulously wealthy dragon tycoon Xarius Augustine. AE owned most of the big resorts and casinos on Grande Island, the main island of Bastana, and even maintained a palatial estate there. At AE owned casinos, the price of going in debt to the house was often every steep, with gamblers accepting long "guest worker" contracts in lieu of prison time or a lifetime of debt.
While Xarius Augustine encouraged other businesses on the islands, especially if he could get a cut, he maintained a near complete monopoly on the training, sale, and and rental of slaves. This provided him with immense wealth which he could use to control the Bastanian State, which itself acted as an arm of his personal empire. In addition tot he Bastanian police and defense forces, Xarius maintained his own private military of mercs which included helicopters and two light frigates to ply the waters around the island for escapees or others who would dare defy the will of the Dragon Lord of Bastana. With these resources, Xarius jealously guarded his monopoly on the slave trade so it was no surprise that the authorities and other powerful institutions would come down hard on upstart operations like Servicorps.
Mason, the man with the money behind Servicorps, was the picture of confidence and success and had been for many years. The border collie had enjoyed the pay of a captain in Xarius Augustine's militia, providing him with a considerable income, but he was already a man of means before his involvement with AE.
Following his distinguished military service in the UFK Army during the Agana Crisis, Mason made investments in defense and security corporate stock, reasoning that heightened global tensions and anti-UFK sentiments in the Southlands would lead to increased value for those interests, and he had been proven correct.
Mason was quick to brag about his wealth and success to anyone who would listen, for he was a complete and utter narcissist. In his mind he could make no mistake nor do any wrong. It was as if he shit gold.
Though a braggart, the border collie was quite intelligent and ran Xarius' slave farm reasonably well. Indeed, since arriving at the slave farm, Mason had invented a few new bondage tools that the company used, including the famed AE 4000 male chastity device, He also had invented a new secure slave transport system where the victim was bound in a fetal position inside a bulletproof plastic bubble and wheeled about remotely on an electric cart chassis under the bubble. This had the advantages of allowing no possibility of resistance for the slave, displaying the goods for potential buyers, and of course being appropriately humiliating for a slave.
But all was not as well as it seemed. Mason preferred to spend his time tinkering with his gadgets and socializing with his friends, often toying with only the slaves he liked. He enjoyed the sense of importance that being captain gave him, but not necessarily the responsibility. Because of this many new slaves were not processed properly by the facility or went ignored. That was when Xarius decided that the captain of his main slave processing facility was overworked and needed some help. ...
"Mmmmngh... tighter!," shouted Mason. "It must be tight! There must be complete immobility."
"Yes captain," replied the crocodile guard curtly as he wrapped around the next length of shiny black rubber wrapping.
"Well what do we have here??," came a smallish voice . The captain and his assisting guard looked down at the source -- a smallish brown river otter with a bespectacled face. He wore the black dress uniform of AE's militia with perfectly shined dress boots. It was quite overly formal for duty. The rank bars on his neck showed him to be a captain, equal in rank to Mason.
"Hmm," said the otter as he observed the scene, typing a few things into his tablet before putting it down to his side. "Enjoying our off hours when we should be working?"
Mason squirmed in place, unable to easily move due to the rubber wrappings that were being wrapped around him. He was suspended a few inches from the floor by a steel pole extending from the floor, tied securely to it by the rubber wrappings.
"I'll have you know that I am testing a new toyification technique that marketing has expressed interest in and that you are intruding in my personal laboratory! ... what are you anyway, some kind of inspector?"
The otter sighed and took a deep breath as the croc continued to wrap Mason up in the wrapping, going above his arms now and tying them to his sides, making him look like a sort of rubber mummy that was taking shape.
"Hardly," said the otter, adjusting his spectacles again. "I'm Captain Tobit. I'm here to assist you in your duties as administrator of the slave farm."
"Great, I could use an assistant," said Mason as the wrappings began to reach his neck. "Someone to do all the dirty work for me while I act as the brains behind the project."
"Well I'm sorry that it won't be quite like that. I've been placed in charge of overseeing processing procedures and regulations for the slave farm. You will oversee the training of the slaves. Xarius has also accepted my design for a new building that will make much more efficient use of space and include a showroom to showcase our fresh product to prospective buyers."
"Mmf... I see," said Mason as the wrappings began to cover his neck, holding it stiffly in place.
"Tell me," asked Tobit. "Do you always use yourself as the guinea pig for your experiments?"
"Not always...," replied Mason. "Only on ... uh ... critical projects like this one."
The otter hmmmed and grinned, nodding a bit as if he understood something now. "Ah... I see."
"It's a variant on mummification," said Mason as the wrappings tightened around his throuat and then began to move up his head and around his muzzle, the croc guard silently continuing his work.
"Some clients like having completely immobile rubber toys for pets," said the collie.
"Is that so?" replied Tobit? "I would have thought that market would be very niche..."
"Not at all!," remarked Mason proudly. "There are fewer buyers than for other special products like ponies or puppies, its true, but those who are into this sort of thing are always willing to pay much gr.. rr.. rrrf! Mmmm!!!,"
The border collie was silenced as a huge black rubber tube was thrust into his maw and the wrappings continued, covering the top of his muzzle now as the croc specially wrapped it up. The collie was furious! He had been interrupted while ranting about himself! This was inexcusable. The damned lizard guard would pay! ... but that would have to come later, because as Mason continued to mumble in an attempt to shout and his eyes narrowed, darting about angrily in an attempt to make contact with his 'assistant,' they were suddenly covered by a thick mass of rubber wrapping, pulled tightly over his eyes. Soon all the was left was the top of his furry skull, and that was covered too.
Tobit stood back and smiled at the scene. Not because he approved, but because he knew he could best this arrogant buffoon and be the sole administrator of the slave farm before too long... a well run and efficient slave farm with a shining new building with the approval of Xarius, and most importantly, all designed and accomplished by him.
Once the collie had been wrapped and stood that way a while, his attempted protesting eventually died down. The only thing that could be heard now was his labored breathing through his tube. That tube was now his only connection to the outside. He could be suffocated or breath-controlled through it and all of his food and drink (including less desirable things) could be forced to him through the tube. He could either choose to swallow it or choke. Of course, other additions would need to be made for the permanent model to allow 'evacuation,' but this prototype was an excellent poof of concept.
The croc went over to a control panel and pushed a button, lifting the metal pole and its mummified prisoner off the ground by a crane, then moving it over towards a vat of viscous black goo. The croc carefully dipped the mummy-toy into the goo, covering its wrapped body with a thick rubber liquid to act as a final and smooth finish. The tube was the only part not covered and the only thing allowing the mummy to breathe.
The croc grinned to himself at the sight and then lifted the new toy up from the vat to dry.
This scene, the meeting between Mason and Tobit, was actually quite appropriate, for it did lead in the end to Mason losing his job. It was as if he were really made into that toy -- forever sealed up and shipped off to be forgotten as the clever otter stole the position that the collie was formerly so proud of.
Tobit impressed Xarius, doubling the output of the slave farm with his new processing procedures that demoralized and tortured the slaves nearly as they arrived, softening them up for their future training. The slaves were submitted to a humiliating medical exam, including a "full body cavity" search, a painful hosing down with a hot water hose, and finally an excruciatingly humiliating rape -- now officially part of the procedure to be checked off -- before being assigned a cell in Tobit's new building... a shining tower of evil, with a circular series of cells to store the slaves in before they were taken to different levels for different "training" exercises, then brought to the bottom floor as broken husks for display to buyers.
The efficiency put Mason to shame and it was exposed that he was doing little to further actual training as Tobit took over the jobs he had excelled in, pushing him further and further to the edge of uselessness. Mason was also infuriated by Tobit's complete ignoring of him, his presence, and his work. Mason was quick to complain about this to everyone, with Tobit playing innocent and generally being easy to get along and work with. It also helped that Tobit indulged every eccentric whim of Xarius, his Dragon Lord, and flattered him constantly.
And so, Mason found himself fired from Xarius' militia, but before he left he wrote a huge letter of denunciation of his former bosses and posted it on every door in the facility where the guards might see it. He vowed to go into business for himself and deliver a better product than Xarius could. It was not illegal in a free market economy like Bastana, he said, for him to acquire land with his own funds and set up his own slave farm where he could deliver a higher quality produce than Augustine Enterprises could.
And so... the brilliant but overconfident canine departed for his own estate on nearby Little Island which he vowed to transform into a new and prosperous slaver facility.