If you've been following along, you now have some idea how I go about writing and why it takes me so long to post my work. This story came together in about two days spread across six weeks. The closer I drew to the ending, the longer the gaps between work. It took awhile to make the final choice and decision sound as reasonable in print as it did in my head. This story was an excuse to write some fetishes that I don't necessarily have. One of these is shaving. While I can see the appeal from several viewpoints, I have no idea if they represent the majority who enjoy it. I welcome the insight of anyone willing to share. Some keen-eyed readers may even spot the cameo of a celebrity in the shaved fur community. Another experiment was the hanging. It was more difficult to write than I anticipated. Readers of my other work will probably notice it wasn't as descriptively detailed as some of my other fetish work. My excuse? Well, while possessing experience with gasmasks, rebreathers, and being hand-stifled, I don't go much further with breath control outside of fantasy. And consensual hanging...how does that even work? My research took me to the writings of kintomythostian kintomythostian, who can even make it sound tragically romantic. In my ambition, I tried to make it into a means of rebirth. I welcome you to judge my success for yourselves. Now, without further preamble... - - - "What's the bag for?" "To make the clean-up easier," Alyk said, grinning. "Fair enough," Karen replied, trying to keep a serious face as she shifted her naked and depilated body closer to the tapered, body-moulded sack of thick, matte black, slippery vinyl. She had to hand it to him, his planning of this scene was surpassed only by his commitment to it. He had arranged payment not just for her standard fee, her bonus for extreme fetish work, and for 48 hours of prep and filming, but also for the six months it would take for her fur to grow back. That was a chunk of change very few (none, actually) of her other clients could afford. - - - Mr. Alyk Thanis (the name appearing on the business card he'd given her) or 'Master' (when the bank of digital cameras were running), was obviously a dragon of considerable means. She had asked him once why he kept coming back to her instead of soliciting the upscale girls who walked the streets with designer purses and wore the latest fashions - the kind hotel doormen called 'Ma'am' instead of 'Shove off, Missy'. His reply had been that she had the rare kind of 'spunk and spark' that excited him. When he saw her (admittedly meager, but essential) collection of latex and fetish gear, that apparently cemented their business relationship. Since the New Years' party he'd met her at, Alyk had been around five times - each session longer, more involved, and hotter than the last. During their third session, he'd even taken her shopping at some of the fetish stores in the upscale district - the kind where you don't just pull something out of the clearance bin (looking it over for hasty patch-jobs or cigarette burns), or even off the rack. They actually measured her in every place imaginable (yow! cold hands!) and he'd placed the order for two custom items. She'd have had to spend months on her back for most of the price-tags there, but the dragon didn't bat an eyelash - er, nictitating membrane. He even negotiated them into putting aside everything except his order to get it done in one week instead of two. The sack was one of those custom items, as was a skintight translucent red vinyl catsuit with white gloves, socks, chest, and crotch panel that matched her own fur pattern. The latter had come in useful the Thursday he'd arrived to begin this scene. His fantasy involved her being shaved from neck to toe and her mane being clipped very short. In preparation, she'd seen her stylist and spent the morning scrubbing out her dingy tub until it was cleaner than the day she'd moved in. Once finished, she was starving, but in accordance with Alyk's instructions to avoid solid food for a day, she reached instead for a bottle of sports drink. A few refreshing gulps later, Alyk buzzed her flat and she let him up. He arrived at her door with a box and the first of several crates of video equipment. He declined her help carrying them up, explaining how most of it was heavy and delicate. Once everything was moved in, Alyk wandered into the bath and began running warm water into the stoppered tub. As the mirrors began to steam, he shook out a plastic painter's tarp in the middle of the bathroom and told her to stand in the center. Karen blinked as the dragon drew out a pair of heavy-duty electric clippers and a number of battery sticks. Looking at her with flickering gold eyes, he let out a wisp of smoke from his nostrils to emphasize his seriousness: "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" By this point, she had been thinking about it for the past week, but for the sake of appearances she looked away and made a face she hoped conveyed serious introspection for a solid 30 seconds before answering. "I'm ready." Alyk continued staring for several seconds before nodding, apparently satisfied. With a gentle brush of his scaly hand along her calves, the clippers began to buzz, moving slowly upward against the lay of her silky fur. A downy fuzz remained in the track exposed by the clippers while a strip of coarser fur landed on the plastic next to her foot. She stood as still as possible as the dragon repeated the motion, gradually exposing more of her slender limb. The sensation was alien to her mind, but not necessarily unpleasant. Within 20 minutes, her left leg was a pinkish-white stilt compared to her untouched right. While Alyk paused to swap the battery with a fresh one, the vixen gingerly stroked a hand along both hips, shivering at the obvious difference in sensitivity. "There'll be time enough for that later, girl," the drake admonished, a soft churr rumbling below his voice. Three more battery swaps later, Karen was starting to feel a bit like a sheep, or one of those stuck-up poodles from uptown. She allowed herself a brief fantasy of leaving her flat like this when she suddenly stumbled over a faint memory. Her unintended chuckle caught the dragon's attention. "Find something humorous did you?" "Oh, it's just...I remembered this one time when I was waiting for a bus and a shaved skunk sat down beside me. I tried not to stare but I remember thinking it was so odd at first. Then, the more I thought about it, the more advantages I could think of. No shedding or brushing in the summer...easier to slip into my latex...then I thought about the benefits to oral sex. By the time I'd snapped out of it, the skunk-girl was gone and I'd missed my bus!" Alyk laughed, nodding his angular head. "Perhaps we'll be able to explore some of those benefits soon." With that, he brought the clippers to bear in the space between her spread thighs. He wrapped his hand around half her waist as she gasped and nearly stumbled backward. Spinning her around, he pushed her chest against the door to the bathroom and nudged her legs further apart as he pulled the clippers up along the cleft of her ass. Grasping her shoulder, he pulled her back and flipped her around again. His left forearm laid across her throat, pinning her back and shoulderblades against the door. He was careful to not apply any pressure, just a barrier to keep her in place as he maneuvered the clippers over her breasts and around her pierced nipples. When two matching teardrop-shaped patches of skin were exposed, he moved his arm away and wiped a towel across the fogged mirror to give her a good look. Karen's hands immediately went up to cover her mounds, only to hiss through clenched teeth as her bare nipples and areolas touched the leathery pads of her palms. "Ah ssshhhit!" She tried again. "Shit! Sweet maker! Oh!" Recovering, she looked again at the tiny steel barbells in her nipples, the tiny steel ball above her labia, and the small ring dangling from her clitty. The shaved strip and teardrops drew all attention to her most intimate areas. As she felt the rosy blush flaring in her ears, she made a note to remember this for her humiliation-loving submissive clients. "Well, well, what have we here?" The drake's brow arched as he ran a cool, scaly finger along her inner thigh, lifting a bead of wetness to her eye-level. "Very telling." "Being paid by the hour here..." Karen pointed out, picking up the discarded handtowel from the counter, turning it clean-side out and wiping away her moisture. "I have you for the next six months. Plenty of time to learn..." Alyk's long prehensile tongue swept up the liquid pearl from his fingertip. "...what will get my money's worth. Even so, your point is taken." The shearing resumed without further incident, his talons picking away the strips of fur as he passed over her shoulders, back, and ass. Occasionally, his hand would grab at her and bend her one direction or other. When she complained at the roughness, he mumbled an apology, blaming his difference in size or inability to gauge his strength with smaller furs. Thankfully, it was only a half-hour later when the last strip of coarse fur dropped from her sternum to join the large pile on the floor. Looking in the mirror again, Karen shook her head in disbelief at the unfamiliar creature looking back at her. She looked like a scrawny pinkish stick figure with breasts and a small paunch above her hips. Not hideous, or at least not as gross as she'd been worried, but she couldn't help thinking about her chance encounter with the skunk-girl again. She couldn't conceive of it as a lifestyle...not for herself anyway. Alyk soon took her arm and led her away from the mirror and to the waiting tub of water. The surface was still steaming faintly, but a test-dip of her toes allowed her to assure the drake that the temperature was fine. He let her submerge herself up to her shoulders and soak for a few minutes while he busied himself picking up the plastic sheet and arranging some of his equipment in the bedroom. When he returned, he knelt beside the tub and reached into the clear water to retrieve her leg. His other hand came up to join the first and began spreading a cold lotion all along the appendage. Soon, the pinkness was engulfed in a bubbling blue froth that tingled. He had to hold her still as she scrambled and spasmed from the tickling sensation, but when her laughing finally calmed down, he released his hold and her leg fell back into the water. As the foam dissolved, she noted the last of the residual fur did as well. "What the hell was that stuff? That's not like any depilatory I've ever used before." Alyk shrugged his massive shoulders, "It's a bit more effective perhaps, but perfectly safe I promise you. You'll be completely smooth - no stubble at all. And when your fur starts growing back in three or four days, it'll be even softer than before." Karen's ears swiveled into a less aggressive posture as she laid back again. "Oh, well, that's all right I guess." Alyk chuckled and held out his re-lathered hands for her other leg as she mentally prepared herself for the effects. - - - It was around noon when they finished. Karen polished off the last few gulps of her first sports drink while she was drying off. She padded out of the bathroom to see a tool chest open on her bedspread, her cobwebbed ceiling fan propped against the wall, and the dragon drilling holes in the ceiling above the bed. Karen was more perplexed than upset when the box on the floor caught her eye. "Why are you installing a garage door opener above my bed?" Alyk hmmmed to himself as he double-checked a few pencil marks with a tape measure. "I figured it made more sense than over the bathtub." Karen dropped half her towel as she reached to scratch behind her ear. "More sense? How exactly?" The dragon picked up the power drill and sank another hole into the stud, answering matter-of-factly, "the bed's more comfortable, obviously." "Obviously," the vixen repeated, no more enlightened than before. "Say, this may take a little bit, 'cause of the re-wiring from your fan and all. Why don't you slip into your new suit?" The vixen felt a sudden surge of excitement at the idea. She was far more aware of the cold drafts and eddys in her apartment now. The idea of squeezing herself into something smooth, warm, and skintight did sound awfully appealing at the moment. - - - Karen stood in front of the full-length mirror that hung from her closet door, smiling as she ran her gloved hands along her vinyl-sheathed body with a soft, whispering sound. Unlike her Furproof™ latex catsuit, this was more like wearing a form-fitted raincoat - only about a million times more fun...especially with the lube. She'd poured most of a 5 oz. bottle into the suit to help slip it on. While in the beginning it added a rather chilling element against her newly bare skin, as it warmed up, the suit had begun to contract a little and the lube began acting more like glue - taking the place of air pockets and enhancing the suction. The enhanced sensation of enclosure and confinement was another mark to add in body-shaving's favor, she thought to herself. In fact, thinking about it, she kind of wished she could have done this before being measured for the suit. As closely as they'd tailored it to her, there was still a scant millimeter or two here and there that fur would normally have filled out. Though, considering this, it's strange the thing had molded nipple caps, when normally her fur would have covered those too. She turned around and looked over her shoulder, shifting her tail to the side to get a better look at her rear 'assets' when... "Hrm? What's that?" Her fingers raised up to a circular indentation about 4 cm. in diameter that was ringed by a hard plastic edge. It looked sort of like a nozzle of some kind. It appeared solid, but she could sort-of wedge the nib of vinyl covering her thumb between the suit and the inside of the rigid edge of the indentation. Was it a defect? With the amount of money Alyk had thrown at them that seemed unlikely. Still, it had been a rush job. A noise in the bedroom caught her attention and she wandered back in to find the dragon removing bits of paint, drywall, and wood from the bedspread with a powerful hand-held vacuum. "Alyk, I'm not sure, but I think there's a problem with the catsuit." The drake switched off the vacuum, frowning severely. "I surely hope not! What seems the problem?" Karen turned around to show him, fingering the nodule on the small of her back. She didn't see the dragon's frown instantly invert and add a mischievous curl of the lip besides. "Oh dear, what a shame." Karen's ears drooped at what she thought was the confirmation of a defect. "Is there any chance it can be fix-AH!" There was a shrill whine as the vacuum switched on and the intake was plunged into the recess above her tail. If she felt the suit was snug before, this gave her a whole new appreciation of skin-tight. Within seconds, she felt the pliant vinyl sucking into the void of her armpits, the gloves pulling into the space between her fingers, and the nipple-caps pinching around the stiffened nubs of flesh. "Okay, okay, that's enough...you can turn it off now. Com'n Alyk, turn it off. Turn it off!" Alyk bent the squirming vixen over the bed, holding the vacuum in place as he watched the vinyl sink into the crevice dividing the globes of her ass. Karen's fingers dug into the comforter as the moulded plastic crotch sealed to her sex and forced the catheter tube deep enough for the bulb to pop into place in her bladder. "Pleeeeeease...ENOUGH!" It was at that point the vacuum whirred to silence. Alyk then pulled a round, hard rubber plug from his pocket and pressed it into the recess with his thumb to block air from seeping back in. Karen's vinyl skin creaked as she pushed herself up and rose dizzily to her feet. The compression was almost stifling, like a full-body corset. Alyk chuckled over the sound of her panting. "Sorry. I was going to tell you about the vacu-form feature, but I just couldn't resist the chance to see your reaction." Karen snarled, shoving her open palms against the dragon's broad, muscular chest. "That wasn't funny! From now on you tell me before you do things like that!" Alyk's expression flitted quickly from jovial to appraising. He noted that she didn't demand to be released. His features relaxed, but his reply was far from conciliatory. "I won't be making any promises of that nature. You are, of course, free to exercise the escape clause in our contract at any time. You'll retain your fee for the day and the agreed compensation for your pelt, but the rest will be forfeit and our business relationship, such as it is, will be at an end." The dragon released a diffident stream of smoke from his nostrils before transitioning to a more casual tone. "While you make up your mind, I believe I'll fix myself something to eat. All this construction has left me positively famished!" Alyk stepped around the vixen, but paused to turn his head as he ducked through the door. "Feel free to join me at the couch when you're ready. Oh, by the way, you'll want to put one of those on if you do." The dragon pointed to a bag of disposable diapers peeking from one of the half-packed boxes stacked in the corner. "Those piss-tubes can be a little iffy when you're not used to them. I doubt you want to end up wetting your carpet without realizing it." Karen chuffed to herself as the dragon left. Reaching between her thighs, she wiggled the two inches of protruding soft plastic tubing and sighed. "Bastard probably has the stopper for it too; he just wants to see me squirm." She stalked across the room and (with some difficulty) extricated one of the disposable undergarments from the bag. As she slipped it up over her glossy legs, she studied the curious rigging hanging from her ceiling. The garage door opener chain ran to what looked like a large bicycle gear attached to a block of pulleys. Threaded through and dangling from the pulleys was a length of rope, the end of which was coiled on the bed. Its significance was not lost on her. - - - Karen came out to find Alyk relaxing on her leather couch and watching one of those true-crime dramas on television. A scrap of sandwich and a half-empty bag of corn chips sat on the end table. That's part of what she liked about Alyk. Filthy rich as he had to be, he didn't have snobbish tastes. He was equally comfortable at a ball park or movie theater as he was at an art gallery or board room. The 'shwipping' sound of her vinyl skin rubbing against itself and the crinkling of her plastic undergarment broadcast her presence to the dragon's swept-back ears even above the noises from the telly. Tilting his head, he looked her up and down and grinned. "Glad you could join me, dear. Have a seat." The vixen padded across the carpet only to find Alyk's massive tail occupying the rest of the two-seat couch. Clearing her throat patiently, she waited, but rather than shift his tail aside he instead spread his legs apart and gestured to the floor between them. Karen rolled her eyes, but made no sound as she slunk to the carpet and crawled into the niche like she had with her parents as a young kit. She sat there with her back against the couch and the dragon's muscular legs pressed lightly against the outside of her arms and legs. Presently, she felt his hand lightly stroke along her short headfur. He repeated the smooth petting motion over and over, varying only slightly to scratch behind her ears with his talons. She watched the flickering images on the telly as she slowly relaxed, her eyelids and ears drooping in equal measure with the continued rhythm of his hand on her head. The show gradually became an unintelligible background of colored light blobs and distant, soft intermittent buzzing. She was so focused on the stroking that it bordered on a hypnotic trance. She didn't move at all as his hand traced down to her right shoulder to be joined by its mate on the left. Together his palms glided up along her slender, vinyl-coated neck. At her jawline, they rested for several seconds, letting their warmth soak into the slick material before he placed them back on her shoulders and repeated the action as he had the petting - slowly and gently. Over the iterations, the action evolved until at the apex he was locking his fingers around the front of her throat and pressing his thumbs on either side of the base of her cranium. There, the tips of his talons pricked at a spot in the center of the back of her skull - almost like acupuncture needles. His hands remained there for almost a minute, gradually squeezing at a rate that was too subtle for the vixen to even notice. "Such a pretty plastic vixen doll. You'll make a perfect addition to my perverted tarot." Alyk released Karen's throat and palmed her cheekruffs, skritching under her chin with genuine affection before reclining back on the couch and clicking off the television with the remote. Seeing the vixen still in a daze, he clapped and rubbed his hands together in anticipatory glee. "Right! Enough preamble - time for the main event." Karen startled at the sudden noise and instantly regretted it as a warmth spread between her legs. She had to concentrate to regain control, fighting to pinch her muscles back against the tube wedged inside her - which wasn't easy with the dragon's foot nudging at her shoulder, urging her to get up. Gingerly she rolled onto her hands and knees and stood, hoping that the scent was being absorbed along with her involuntary emission. The dragon's foot also nudged her padded rear end as she climbed back to her feet, but if his flared nostrils alerted him to anything, he didn't mention it. Alyk grinned, watching her walk awkwardly back toward the bedroom; the rosy blush burning in her ears was enough for him. - - - Soon, Karen's rinsed out vinyl catsuit was hung on the shower rod and the vixen herself sat naked on the bed, her body soaked in a mixture of sweat and lube. Beside her lay the second custom-made item ordered for her from the workshop of Black Magick Fetish, Ltd. "What's the bag for?" "To make the clean-up easier," Alyk said, grinning. "Fair enough," Karen replied, trying to keep a serious face as she shifted herself closer to the tapered, body-moulded sack of thick, matte black, slippery vinyl. "In you go," Alyk coaxed, assisting as she rocked back and lifted her long legs into the air. The bag pulled taut as the reinforced vinyl slipped over her feet. The zipper inched its way along, pausing only for some shifting of the sack beneath her or a minor adjustment in her position. The lube left on her bare skin made entry possible, but the dry plastic of the sack was still grabby in spots. Things were easier after negotiating her tail through the dual-zippered 25cm slit in the rear. Once flush with her arse, Alyk pulled the two zippers inward until they pressed against her tailbase from above and below. "Now the sleeves." Her hands were quickly ensconced in gloves that sealed her fists against her hips, and with the zipper drawn up to her chin, the rest of her body was trapped as well. He gave her ample time to enjoy herself, squirming and arching and flexing against the stretchy material. In a perverse way she reminded him of a fish flopping on the floor of a boat. In the meantime, he picked up the coiled end of rope resting on the pillow and began tying a very special sort of knot. At about the same time he slipped the noose over her head, the bank of digital video cameras posted around the bed activated with a blink of blue LEDs. Alyk stood back to admire the view - how the soft bedroom light played over her glossy black bondage, how the shine danced over her curves as she shifted and wiggled, how the vinyl creaked as she stretched her legs and strained to push her elbows away from her torso. The futility of her struggle was exactly half as arousing to him as the sheer passion she put into it. That special sort of spunk was hard to find in a consenting subject. Most submissives tended to revel in their bondage - and surrender to it quickly. Karen, however, was an untamed spirit - a mover - someone who yearned to push against something, either mentally or physically. It's why she enjoyed bondage, why she enjoyed dominating some clients and submitted to others, and why she was drawn to play along with and suffer his little games. The money was a convincing excuse, but still just an excuse for satisfying a drive she probably didn't understand about herself. And he was going to prove it. Alyk grabbed the sack around the vixen's ankles, hauled her to the edge of the mattress, and placed his hand on her lap. Between the rope around her neck and his pinning hand, it was enough to force her attention. "Karen, I want you to listen to me now. I have a proposition for you." The red vixen made the cutest whine as she laid there, still twitching occasionally beneath his hand. "W-with this knot behind my ear and your palm pressing right there, it seems you have me right where you want me." He bathed her face in another gust of heat from his pursed lips. "Excellent observation. Now open your eyes and look at me." Karen complied, her ears canting as they failed to detect any playfulness in his voice. "You should know that our...encounters...over these past few weeks have been an interview of sorts. You should also be aware that I've had my eye on you for...well, let's just say, a little bit longer than that. Nothing insidious, I promise - just admiring the effect you had on some of my more closeted employees. It didn't take long for me to trace their late nights, sick-days, and personal vacations to you. Hell, I had a personal secretary fake a dead mother to spend the week sealed in latex at your feet. Her name was Alannah, if I recall, though she may have used an alias with you." Karen stared at him, startled and speechless. "Well, when Alannah came back from bereavement leave, her productivity nearly tripled. Her fur smelled of latex for nearly a month afterward, particularly when she was warm. It took a considerable amount of willpower on my part to keep from cranking up the thermostat and bending her over my desk..." Alyk's distant gaze faltered as he filed the fond memory back in its place. "Anyway, I arranged for you to receive the invitation to that New Years' party so I could finally meet you face-to-face. I must say you've exceeded my greatest hopes. And that brings us to today." Alyk lifted his hand from the vixen's crotch to cup her sleek muzzle. "I really like you, Karen. I want to give you the opportunity to be who and what you are without the worries of money or thoughts of class, but to know the best way of doing that for you, I need to know - for sure - who and what you are." The dragon released her chin as he revealed the remote in his other hand and pressed a button. Immediately the garage door opener overhead sprang to life, cycling the chain...that wound the gears...that turned the block of pulleys...that reeled in the rope and drug the squeaking vixen back along the bed and lifted her up into a seated position. There he pressed the button again, causing the mechanism to fall silent. "You have two options: if the next words out of your mouth are 'thank you, Alyk', I'll release you now. You'll have fulfilled your part of our arrangement and will receive everything I promised. I'll remain a good, steady client - perhaps even a good friend - if you wish to continue our relationship afterward." The dragon cupped her heaving breast and rubbed her hard, jutting nipple through the thick black vinyl. "To sweeten the deal, I'll also make a one-time deposit of one million credits into the bank account of your choosing...tax free." His talons plucked at the plastic coated nub of flesh, causing her to whimper. "If, however, you say 'as you wish, Master', our original deal will be voided; there will be no payment, no million credits, and no more businesswoman-client relationship - you will cede ultimate power and authority to me. In exchange, I will take care of you for the rest of your life." Karen pulled at her arms, twitching side to side as she tried to keep her balance with anything except the rope around her slender neck (being seated on her tail did not make it easy). What she couldn't understand is why she was still bothering to endure the discomfort. All she had to do was say a few words and it'd be over. She could've been back on her feet with a fuck-ton of money by now. So why hadn't she said anything? The dragon was waiting, watching her as patiently and impassively as any of the cameras he'd set up around her. Come to think of it, why was he recording this? She'd figured it was like any client wanting a recording of their scene to jerk off to later - but if he planned on offering this to her the whole time, he must've anticipated the only thing he'd record would be her choosing the money. 'It's not just the money,' she thought. 'I mean, he's a cool guy too - strong, handsome, perverted as hell... A guaranteed long-term relationship with someone like him would be...fun.' Somehow inside that felt hollow. It was something she couldn't quite put her finger on, but the same feeling was what was keeping her from saying the magic words. What if the cameras were here as witnesses to something more legally binding? The way he was massaging the button of the remote with his thumb...she could imagine, no, she could almost feel it massaging her clit... Karen finally rasped, "ah-as you wish..." Alyk waited seconds before prompting. "As you wish, who?" "Master." The dragon beamed, either proud of her or himself for having been correct in his initial appraisal of her spirit. With a considered tenderness he'd yet to really show, he leaned down and planted his muzzle to hers. Her lips responded, mapping his snout by touch and guiding her maw to where his prehensile tongue was snaking out to mingle with her own. As the kiss deepened, Alyk used the remote to retract the rope little by little, drawing the noose tighter and tighter around the vixen's throat. When he sensed her tongue beginning to swell, he pulled away and held his thumb on the button. Her rear lifted free of the bed, followed soonafter by her legs and swinging tail. Her bound legs thrashed uselessly a mere two feet above her own bedspread. The supple leather sack creaked and constricted around her body as she pulled at her sheathed arms and strained to reach something more supportive than air with her toes. With a gurgled wheeze, her lips twisted into an anguished grimace. Her bloodshot eyes followed Alyk's hand as he reached out to stroke her squirming, vinyl-sealed body. The dragon murmured soothingly, running his hand down her sleek, heaving chest, "Shush, shhh...that's right..." Karen clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut against the pressure behind them. Her entire head throbbed painfully with every beat of her heart. Gradually, she became aware of her body going limp; her muscles were going slack, refusing to obey her will to struggle. The throbbing in her head abated as a tingling numbness set in, from her extremities inward, until - from her perspective - she was just a floating head anchored to a distant, vinyl-packaged paperweight which kept her from flying away. She could hear soft, comforting words coming from somewhere, but they were too dull and muffled to discern through the cotton in her head. With a final, rattling gasp, she surrendered to her fate. And in that last, atemporal moment of consciousness, she felt lips join hers and draw out something from deep inside. It felt warm, peaceful, and somehow radiant - as if serenity was something as tangible as a tiny star. The ember tickled her throat as it wafted up and drifted lazily along her tongue -- and the instant it passed her lips, the universe flashed white. "Such a pretty plastic vixen doll. You'll make a perfect addition to my perverted tarot." "...you will cede ultimate power and authority to me. In exchange, I will take care of you for the rest of your life." "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" "I'm ready." "I'm ready." - - - "I'm ready," Karen heard the croaking voice repeat. It took a second to realize it was her own. Her ears flicked and her eyes slowly squinted open as the world around her gained clarity and vibrancy. A steady patter of raindrops fell against the three story tall stained glass window that overlooked the expansive four-poster bed she laid upon. She seemed alone. She didn't move at first, only allowing herself the exploratory twitch of a toe here, a finger there. She wasn't in the bag, but she was still sealed in. She was back in her vac-sealed vinyl catsuit! The whispered scuff of her thighs rubbing together as she rolled from her side onto her back confirmed it. "Ooo...maker..." There were new additions as well: A thick, molded, hollow dildo and tailplug were now thoroughly integrated with her synthetic skin. She definitely wasn't numb anymore...or even sore. In fact, as her drowsiness retreated, she was feeling better than she could ever remember being before. She lifted her gloved hands into view, appreciating how it felt to wiggle her fingers, clench a fist, or flex her wrist against the reluctant yield of plastic. Slowly, she brought them to her face and dragged the tips of her fingers against her cheeks. An audible squeak echoed through the vast bedchamber. Her hands leapt to her ears next, fingering the thin vinyl sheaths that encased them, then to her muzzle, which produced similar squeaking tones. Licking her lips, she tasted smooth, slippery-wet latex. The vixen sat up on the bed, but not as fast as she'd intended. The creaking, shiffering, squeaking plastic enclosing her body produced an almost matronly resistance to swift movements, as if trying to hold her back until she was used to this new form. Turning her head to the side, her gaze fell upon a stylish mirrored vanity not far from the bed. Her reflection was mostly the same as the last time she'd checked - a red vinyl vixen with white chest, gloves, and socks - except that now her head was sealed in vinyl as well. Even her eyes were covered by clear plastic lenses shaped so as to hide as much as possible of her flesh without obscuring her vision. Gingerly sliding herself off the soft mattress to her feet, she shuffled over to the mirror for a closer look. With the dreary storm blocking all natural light, it was too dark to see very well, but flipping a switch built into the vanity rewarded her with four focused lamps to see by. The glint of silvery metal immediately caught her notice. Her barbell nipple piercings were right there - pierced through the vinyl! Glancing downward, she saw the same was true for her labial rings. Her gloved hands then moved to her netherlips, and with surprising difficulty nudged them apart to reveal the steel ball protruding from the plastic hugging her clit. The sensation as her fingertip glanced over it was positively electric! Resisting the urge to play, her fingers moved further back to the gaping 5cm wide entrance of her vaginal sheath - the one molded to the inside of a hollow, silicone dildo wedged up farther than she cared to guess. The twin dildo buried inside her ass rubbed and jabbed at the tender walls separating them as she pivoted and rocked her hips - and was at once both uncomfortable and extremely arousing. Looking back up at the mirror, she caught herself with her muzzle hanging open in an unmistakeable expression of lust. It was also the first time she'd seen flesh since waking up. While black rubber appeared to cover her lips, gums, and even her teeth somehow, her tongue and throat - as far as she could see - were still hers, right down to the small steel ball embedded in the spoon-like tip of her tongue. Otherwise... "I'm a living sex-toy!" A familiar voice tinged with a faint Irish accent responded to her exclaimation. "It's not as bad as all that, lass... Less'n o'course that rings your bell." Karen whipped around to face another plastic vixen standing in the doorless entryway, this one with a charcoal and bluish-gray color scheme. She immediately offered a hand in greeting. "The name's Temperance...least nowadays." Karen took the offered hand, the warm palm squeaking against hers as it slid in place. "I'm almost sure I know you from somewhere. You said nowadays? What was your name before?" The vixen answered with a small shrug and a flick of her ear, "Alannah". Karen dropped the other vixen's hand in shock. "Alannah? Alyk's personal secretary?" The vinyl wrinkled slightly along Temperance's brow in what Karyn could only interpret as confusion, "Thas' right. And you are?" Karen couldn't help but smirk good-naturedly, "The former owner of a very sweet rubber-pup named 'Galla'." Temperance's eyes widened before she squeaked and threw her arms around the fellow vixen in a noisy hug, "Mistress Karenthia!? I cannah' believe it! It's so good to see you again!" Karen indulged the embrace somewhat impatiently, but she had to admit it was good to see a familiar face (so to speak) given the circumstances. And Galla or Alannah or Temperance or whatever she was going by now had been a very sweet girl to know in addition to being an ideal client. "So what is this place and what are we doing here?" Temperance released Karen as a thunderclap rattled the walls and a swell of rain picked up. Taking her hand again, she led her away from the vanity and over to the stained glass window. Placing her hands on the pane and peering down through the streaks of rain, Karen saw the frothy whitecaps of a restless, storm-tossed ocean. A few miles distant, presumably on an island or across a bay, the sweeping beacon of a lighthouse cut through the immense gloom. "We are in a complex built into the side of a very tall cliff somewhere underneath Alyk's mansion on the northwest corner of his estate. As for why we're here, I assume it's for the same reason - we agreed to it. You, me, and the other twelve of us. I imagine when Alyk has found the other seven, we'll be ready." Karyn looked back over her shoulder, "other twelve? Like some sort of harem? Ready for what exactly?" Temperance backed up and took a seat on the foot of the bed. "Well, yes, sort of. There are six males including Alyk, and you make the eighth female." The greyish vixen gestured at the stained glass again, causing Karen to take in the gigantic image as a whole for the first time. The shards of colored glass depicted a serene-looking vixen hanging upside down with a rope tied from her right ankle to a living tree. Its arms crossed behind its back and the left leg crossed behind the knee of the right, causing them to resemble the shape of an inverted '4'. At the base of the figure was a flowing inscription that was at once both beautiful and difficult to read through its intricate gold filigree: The Hanged Vixen. "Together we make up 14 of the 21 Major Arcana. Alyk says once he's collected the other seven, we'll be able to make something really important happen. He hasn't been real specific on that point really, but he has said he'll answer all our questions once all of us are together." Karen turned away from the window. "Forgive all the questions. I'm just trying to get my bearings. I'm completely confused by all this. I thought I was agreeing to be Alyk's slave, then he hangs me and I could have sworn he did it until I died. Now I wake up here, like...this..." Karen gestured to her vinyl body, sweeping her hands up and down her sides for emphasis. "And now I represent some sort of gamepiece in a live-action, ancient version of CardCaptors." Temperance reacted like one would expect for someone who'd been through it already. 'She may even have counseled others like me already depending on how long she's been here,' she thought. 'Her being the first to meet me may not have been a coincidence either...' The bluish-gray vinyl sack holding Temperance's tail rustled in a fitful arc across the mattress. She was looking at the floor as if deciding whether to say something - or at least how she should go about it. "I, well, I'm not sure what you believe in concerning magic, faith, and whatnot. I never really gave it a lot of thought before this happened to me anyway. Magic and superstition is pretty common where I'm from, but mostly in the form of folktales and...well, stuff you do because your ancestors did it for generations and so you do it to honor them, or maybe there was a logical reason that's been forgotten or was never really understood but was stumbled on by accident. Even so, I didn't really believe it at first and I doubt you will either. All the same, I'll just tell you what Alyk explained after he did it to me and you can decide for yourself, okay?" Karen pressed her lips together in a pursed frown, but nodded in agreement before padding over to take a seat beside her. "Okay, well, you didn't die...not exactly. You see, your last breath and your spirit are connected somehow. When you were right on the verge, he inhaled a large part of your spirit and combined it with his own before forcing the rest back into your body. Your essence is now linked to him so you're anchored to life as long as he lives. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that dragons live a very long time. I've heard centuries, but no one really knows; not many of them around anymore and they keep a lot private to themselves you know, but it's at least centuries. The point is, you've got a long time to get used to this."