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Unfinished Index
Here are the chapter titles as they are written...- Unfinished Prologue: Wounded Aerth (Finished December 23, 2024)
- Unfinished Stars (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Romance (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Republic (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Penrose Imperium (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Sanctum (Finished December 26, 2024)
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Was that the words of Poe that just graced my ears?
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Donate your idle computer time to science! Join the World Community Grid by...Shhhh! Digital Media Presents: Tales Of The Sanctum - A Lady's Prerogative
Unfinished Bee's Wax
Unfinished Prologue: Wounded Aerth
"Ila... ila... ila... ila... ila.. ila." Barris' voice rang out through the air around her ears.
"Barris?" Mila suddenly arose from her drunken slumber, bent sideways against her easel.
When she was suddenly roused from her state, she began falling in the direction of her easel and down towards the floor amidst the numerous wine bottles that littered the space.
Her hair was long and unkempt, almost as much so as the hair which had grown in on her legs.
She was comfortable yet absent of her own self impression, for she'd been lost in the pursuit of the one true love of her life, and indeed lost without him.
The only true love she'd ever known and the the one who'd been taken from her.
She watched as her entire reality twisted and folded until she was on her feet again. Confident fully. Standing in front of her peers in the Midspace. In front of the Sanctum Seclorem as she stood down the threat that they'd just defeated, turning back Lorr and his siege upon their stronghold.
"...truth is it that you'd prefer is it?" Lorr's teeth gleaned with a tinge of brown, as if stained by some hideous ritual beyond tobacco.
"The truth of your defeat is enough. You are defeated Power Lord on this eve! We of the Sanctum Of The New have bested you and your plans! Alivale hath declared! Sharlesbury hath declared! Westview hath declared! The Aerth Mother Lyra hath declared. The Sanctum Of The New hath declared! Fall back and lay your terms for surrender or else fall and be held until which time you'll stand trial on our terms!" Yirfir declared against their most vile adversary.
"Is this what you truly want, Mila?" Lorr smirked first at Yirfir's words, and then looked to Mila, who suddenly understood the dark plan of the Power Lord.
He'd planned it all this way from the very beginning.
It was he who had been the Mannequins that had chased Mila through the main street of Alivale until she'd arrived at the river of cross roads.
He was the one who commanded the mannequins to destroy her before she crossed the river.
He was the one who felled Barris, and in her moment of need, it was Barris whose life he took, for Barris had fallen in their place, sparing her parents with the sacrifice of his own life.
"You remember that night, don't you?" Lorr's hideous smile glistened in the Midspace Moon as his diminished forces were challenged afore the front gates of the Sanctum Seclorem.
"No! You can't do this! We won! We faced and felled the worst of you. Fair as our souls..." Mila grasped her amulet, beginning to cry as she realized that the Power Lord had intended this from the very beginning.
"It would seem that your cry for the truth of my defeat, has undone the lie of the death of your parents!" Lorr challenged her.
"Whatever is he talking about? Your parents are... Mila? Tell me you didn't deal with this devil?!" Barris pleaded with her.
"There is no such deal at the hand of this treacherous swine! My parents are alive as is Barris!" Mila declared, the amulet suddenly growing so cold that she could no longer bear its touch in her hands.
"One or the other Mila. That was the deal you chose. To undo that which could n'yer be undone! That is the balance of the Aether. You know it as well do I!" Lorr declared.
Mila's knees buckled and she fell before Lorr, crying.
"Nooo... I can't bear it! Please, don't..." she pleaded with the Power Lord.
"You must make a choice Mila, to undo this lie. Which is it? Who shall pay with their lives? Your parents, our Barris?" Lorr pronounced.
Barris was suddenly confronted with his own mortality once again as he had been on that fateful night in Alivale.
Lorr, had bequeathed upon her the choice as to who should be allowed to live, given this travesty against the very bindings of reality: Bariis Windsor, or her parents.
Barris had known a life of loss up until the point he'd met Mila, and it was from this understanding of loss that he stepped forward to face the Power Lord:
"She chooses her parents. I choose her parents. They shall live, and I shall die, and you shall not hold her nor her parents to debt on this matter again!" Barris pronounced.
"Is this what you choose, Barris Windsor?" Lorr betrothed the heir of the unimaginable.
"Noooo! You can't Barris! You can't!" Mila screamed before the gates of the Sanctum.
"Stop him! Yirfir! Jasmer! Why can't you stop him! Please..." Mila pleaded with her allies.
"He is wielding truth Mila, and repatching a fold there within. We can sense it, and therefore the Sanctum cannot interfere... our most powerful magiks will do nye against..." Yirfir declared.
"Tis true. My heart is full of power unmeasured, and yet it is broken in this time to see this peril of my allies, my friends and peers, before me," Sir Manfred kneeled before them, leaning on his gleamingly magnificent long sword, his forehead pressed to its pommel as the guard spread across his forehead, very clearly his cross to bear.
Kensai struggled against the force that held his blade - his soul in its saya - and when he could not bring his Katana to bear upon their enemy, he bowed before Barris.
"You have the honour of a true warrior. One who fights his battles with the virtue of Ryu, perhaps not so much with sharpened blade, but with the sharpened words of your soul," Kensai looked to Barris, and then to Mishima Sato.
"It is as Kensai says, as dispicable as it might be!" Xushu hovered inverted above his sister's head, a hard smirk on his face as he spoke.
A tear slid down Xenshi's face, and as it lost purchase of her cheek it fell into her hand in the form of a diamond.
"I am already missing you Barris..." she said to him.
Sato looked around amongst his friends, until his eyes fell upon those of Barris.
Barris acknowledged Sato's gaze, realizing what he must do.
Xenshi and Xushu both fell to their knees, tears of the five elements falling from their eyes to the heaven of the earth beneath them as they both cried.
The three, Kensai, Sato and Barris all nodded to one another as their peers of the Sanctum faced the Power Lord Lorr.
When their heads rose to eye height, it was Barris who spoke.
"Then it shall be that Mila's parents will live, and I will be gone in their place..." Barris pronounced.
"Nooo! Can't we...? Can't I just... No... please don't take him... He isn't... I can't..." Mila pleaded with the Power Lord, but...
[Sarah Brightman - Dust In The Wind]
Mila's sleeping face slid along her canvas until it lost surface and she fell full force to the floor of her wine bottle littered basement studio.
There she lay upon the floor, the carpet around her slowly soaking up her tears as she cried.
The water from her eyes crept through the carpet, and eventually found the concrete beneath, seeping through even that barrier until it found the water table beneath.
From there, her pain and loss spread through, into the Aerth itself, and the sky became her pain and the ocean became her tears.
The same tears the world cries for any of us who've known such loss, for how could such a vast ocean exist without?
It is within the depth of water that can be found our deepest pain, and our darkest secrets, for water is the wine of the soul.
...
Unfinished Stars
It was the season of festivities, and certainly that time of year for which the term SAPCHOP had first been coined by Mila. The day was at its shortest throughout the year, meaning that every day beyond would be longer than the day before. Given this fact, the day was a rather special time for those whose pursuits found them as students of the Aether, and artisans of the great weave.
Most everyone was busy with activity, either preparing for their holidays or in the case of those in the field of thaumaturgy, they were busy with study or ritual. It was a significant day and certainly one that was full of potential and power.
It was eleven in the morning in Alivale, and thousands of kilometers away in Shepperton off the Thames, it was approaching four in afternoon.
Nelony was busy decorating the house with holiday lights with a little help from the neighbourhood squirrels, while a few blocks away and Shaela was preening one of her cats with a fine toothed comb.
A short bus trip from there, and Sato was busy tending to the customers that had flocked to his store for the day. In fact, it had been one of his busiest times since opening the knick knack shop fifteen years earlier.
He'd hired two students to help him manage things, and they'd do all of the odd jobs like keeping the shop tidy and well stocked with the treasures from Sato's basement, while Sato himself dealt with the customers, entertaining them with stories about how he'd acquired the items from his inventory, and each item had its own tale.
In both Alivale (in Canada) and London (in England), despite their distance apart, tiny flakes of snow drifted gently down from the sky, sprinkling both regions in a light covering, not quite deep enough to warrant a pair of boots, nor quite shallow enough to avert the need for shoveling the walk.
The streets of Alivale were crowded with shoppers, those who were out and about buying the last of their holiday gifts, most of them already laden with those they'd purchased for their loved ones. Many of those whose stores graced the main strip had stepped out front of their shops to clear the snow for their customers, some of them already having laid salt afore the front door.
At the corner of the intersection and taking a considerable piece of the real estate, was The Hot Cup And Cards, Alivale's most popular café. There within, every table was filled and no seats empty, as were the stools and bar area as well.
The aroma of fresh coffee, hot chocolate, cinnamon and latte permeated the air, punctuated by the scent of the in-house bakery. Bread, rolls and fresh cookies lined the counters, disappearing as quickly as they were made.
At one particular table sat three women. One of whom was well known in the region for her artwork, a few of the stores in Alivale selling her work on consignment, though she didn't need the money as much as she needed to constantly be busy in the act of creation, for her name was Mila Ren Dubel.
"Size matters..." Gwendolyn, an attractive woman in her mid thirties with a long and bold head of blonde hair, laughed as she sat beside her two best friends.
Mila suddenly broke out laughing at Gwendolyn's words. Something Mila had long admired about her best friend in the Alivale region. A woman who was unafraid to speak her mind, despite the discomfort it might cause others, but most often her challenging of the status quot would lead to progress, if not healthy debate and most often, hearty laughter. She reminded Mila of Shaela, though with a much softer and less scathing edge. Shaela without the piercing cynicism.
"Honey, we're talking about the size of this man's heart, and I'll tell you, he has a big one, so says the tarot..." Natalie examined the cards spread before her, struggling to contain herself over Gwendolyn's remark.
"I bet that's what you were talking about!" Gwendolyn responded, trying desperately to catch Natalie in a playful lie.
There was a moment of silence between the three, and when none could contain it no further, they, all of three of them burst out laughing, piercing the somber silence of the coffee establishment.
"This isn't quite downtown Toronto I'll have you know, and if it was, I'd bet their language would be at least on par with our worst, so could you kindly respect my tourists?" Wendell stepped over to their table of three, in the most fashionable cafe in Alivale as those seated at other tables (at least those who were paying attention) laughed along with Gwendolyn and her friends.
"They don't call this place The Hot Cup And Cards for nothing let me remind you!" Gwendolyn responded to Wendell's remark.
"And we don't usually let just any Tarot readers operate their snag here unless they're awful special to us," Wendell reminded them.
"Well it must be quite an honour for Natalie to be accepted under your roof, because I'm certainly very eager to get my reading... ahem..." Mila looked to Natalie.
"Oh don't you worry honey. You're next," Natalie replied, as Wendell returned to the counter to begin refreshing the coffee stations.
"Well don't keep me waiting honey. What do the heavens have in store for me?" Gwendolyn pressed Natalie.
Natalie shuffled the cards as Mila's cellular phone rang on the table beside her.
"Hi sweetie!" Mila smiled as she answered the phone.
"This wouldn't happen to be the most beautiful and sexy woman alive, would it?" asked Barris as she listened, immediately blushing at his words.
"I don't know. That depends. This wouldn't happen to be the most gorgeous hunk of a man in the world, would it?" Mila played along with Barris' little game.
"How could anyone hope to answer such a question modestly? You're swelling my head... not to mention some other parts as well..." Barris responded playfully.
"Ditto, though you don't have to hide the fact that its only your ego that's swelling..." Mila replied, talking quietly to keep her conversation from Natalie's and Gwendolyn's ears.
"I heard that!" Gwendolyn remarked to Mila, not actually having heard anything at all.
"And my imagination. What are you wearing today?" Barris asked her.
"My holiday skirt, which fits me perfectly today. My red and pink blouse..." Mila began.
"...the satin one? Ohhhh I like that one. Ever so slightly transparent... it just tickles my imagination..." Barris said to her as seductively as he could muster.
"...and those tights you really like..." Mila continued.
"I might just have to leave early today... chase everyone out of the museum and meet you at our favourite place..." Barris truly let his imagination run wild.
"Where? You mean that rental cottage...? And then what will you do next...?" Mila whispered her words.
"I'd..." Barris began, though his words were suddenly cut short as the museum workplace around him disappeared and he reappeared in the middle of an old marble court.
He quickly turned around to take in his surroundings, a group of men in white togas were seated as if in a meeting, a few of them wearing wreaths on their heads.
Unfinished Romance
"Barris?" Mila addressed her husband to be, but the line had gone dead.
She checked her phone for reception, and upon finding it to be alright, she then addressed her friends at the table.
"How's your phone reception? Are either of you two having any problems?" asked Mila of Gwendolyn and then Natalie.
"Mine's fine. WIFI too," Gwendolyn responded.
"Same here. Why? Did you lose him?" asked Natalie.
"He'll call back... It was getting a little hot..." Mila blushed to her friends, fanning herself with her hand.
Gwendolyn and Natalie both broke out laughing with Mila.
"If its that hot, he'll call back. What guy wouldn't..." Gwendolyn added.
"I'll call him," Mila immediately responded, dialing Barris' number but only getting his answering machine.
"One more try..." Mila waited barely ten seconds and then hit the speed dial to Barris' number once again.
"You two for crying out loud! Gag me with a shovel you're just sooo damned cute! You've been with him for almost six years and you two still behave like you only hooked up yesterday!" Gwendolyn smirked at Mila, a smile on her face contrasted her tone.
"I remember when Melvin and I first met. It was flowers every day, and romance every night... for about six months... until it all dried up at once... the fun bits at least... Ohhhh those were the days," Natalie recalled as she finished shuffling the next batch of cards for Gwendolyn's tarot spread.
"These two are like starstruck lovers! Stuck in a perpetual time loop like they're in they're still in their prime or something!" Gwendolyn said with a certainly level of disgust, though it was arguable as to whether it was more jealousy than anything.
"Wait 'til they get married. A few months in and all the best stuff will suddenly disappear in a drought, and they'll finally surrender to being like every other couple in the world. A few years beyond that, and they'll replace that nice queen sized bed of theirs for a pair of single beds on the opposite side of the room...!" Natalie started turning over cards.
"That isn't my fortune is it?" Mila asked as the phone rang on Barris' end as she waited for him to answer.
"No, Mila. It isn't your fortune. Its all of our fortunes, us poor women, when our Prince Charming finally retires to become Prince Rotund, complete with a sizeable inner-tube around his waist..." Natalie looked across the room admiringly at a younger couple, both of whom were trim and vivacious, full of passion for one another.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! I do believe my ears are ringing!" Melvin entered the café as if on cue, a large sack hoisted over his shoulders.
"Honey, we were just talking about you," Natalie said to her husband as he leaned over to lay an affectionate peck on her cheek.
"And I was just thinking about you three, and how a present for you each might change those pouty faces to a round of smiles!" Melvin lay the sack down on the floor and reached in, retrieving three gifts, one each for Gwendolyn, Mila and his wife Natalie.
"I thought those were for the kids?" asked Gwendolyn of the thirty-something year old man.
"The kids have been thoroughly serviced of their holiday gifts. They had a show earlier where you'll never guess who showed up and made sure that there were no children without presents this year..." Melvin stood poigniantly looking off into the distance, his left hand still holding the gift sack, his right hand rubbing the front of his rotund, inner-tube belly.
"...whew! I though I'd lost you..." Barris finally answered the phone.
"I guess we were disconnected. Is everything alright?" Mila asked him.
"Yes... but getting back to our earlier conversation, I couldn't help but think how spending the rest of the day at our secret place might be quite fitting given the season, and let me tell you, Mr. Ho! Ho! is ever so jolly to see you!" Barris responded, picking up where they'd left off from earlier.
Mila ran her finger seductivey up her leg to the hemline of her skirt, which just barely crested her shapely knees and her crossed legs.
"Mr. Ho! Ho! isn't the only one eager to enjoy the pleasures of the season..." Mila did her best to sound seductive, only finding herself suddenly blushing as she spoke.
"Honey. I'm so sorry that we had to delay the wedding. Its been bothering me silly thinking about it, but I didn't think that my parents would ever contact us, let alone request of us to delay the most important date of our lives..." Barris suddenly pleaded with Mila.
"Ohhhh honey. Its... done, and a summer wedding would have been my dream come true, but we can wait until the spring again, but you have to promise me that there will be no more delays or cancellations... And you also have to make sure that I'm well attended to every single day until that day arrives..." Mila continued again with the seduction, finally starting to feel comfortable enough to thoroughly enjoy herself.
"Honey, I'm just about ready to lock up here, and I'll be there to pick you up in about forty-five minues. Can Miss tinkle-berry wait until then?" Barris asked her.
"Only if Mr. Ho! Ho! can," Mila replied, cupping her hand over the phone to keep their conversation discrete.
"Love you!" Barris said to her.
"Love you too. See you soon..." Mila hung up, and Barris immediately began doing the rounds in the museum and locking up.
"Would you and Barris care to join us this evening for a bit of holiday cheer?" asked Melvin of Mila.
"You're welcome too if you'd like Gwendolyn," Natalie added.
"I was just going to ask you the same thing. We're having a few people over for the holidays and we expect to be enjoying ourselves late into the evening. We've got lots of space if you'd like to join us..." Mila offered.
Natalie looked over to Melvin, who nodded affirmatively.
"We could do that, but what about your friends?" Melvin asked Natalie.
"We're having company at our place, but if you have the room, we could all do the holiday cheer at your manor..." Natalie suggested.
"They're part of my club. A tarot group as it were..." Natalie added.
"I'd love to have you all over. We'll be starting at 7PM but you can show up any time thereafter," Mila said, checking her watch given her impromptu plans for romance with Barris.
"I'll call my beau and see if he's into that. I don't see why not. Besides, it would be nice to catch up some more, especially over a few bottles of that Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon you've been crafting," Gwendolyn got up from her seat.
"Thanks so much for the reading, Natalie. I guess it seems that it would be a good idea to take up Mila's offer then. You could say that it was in the cards..." Gwendolyn bid her friends farewell as she grabbed her bag of holiday shopping and made her way to the door.
"Alright Mila. Your turn... and let me tell you, this looks like your chart is going to be quite remarkable. We've got a Mercury retrograde, and a Venus rising... but who's this mysterious stranger that showing up in your chart...?" Natalie began setting up for Mila's fortune, having already retrieved her friend's astrological chart and was now shuffling the cards for her spread.
Unfinished Republic
"Do I know any of you?" asked Barris of the strange men that surrounded him in what appeared to be a Republic court of some ancient architecture.
Despite its having been built hastily since their occupation of Albion, it was quite remarkable that their supply lines and reach had been capable of transporting the valuable building material from quarries as far away as the Mediterranian, along what their Empire referred to as the red way. Regardless of its having been built in haste, it housed them and suited their purposes quite well. A taste of their distant home, for all roads of their vast empire truly led to Rome.
[Barris Windsor, have you lost your mind since last we spoke? I seem to recall that we made good progress with regard to our mutual learning of each others' language.]
"Barris Windsor, ex quo ultimo locuti sumus animum perdidisti? Meminisse videor nos bene profecisse quoad mutuam alterius linguae cognitionem." Ponderosus addressed Barris from the head of the court.
Barris heard the words, even recognizing that they were likely spoken in native Latin, but having no training in the language most often taught to Doctors for a career in Medicine, he was lost as to how to respond.
"Ummm... hocus pocus...? Hello-us? Hit my knee with a rubber hammer-us?" he responded, an intense migraine headache suddenly cropping up from within the innards of his skull.
"Oh my skull! Somebody please stop it!" he wailed, holding onto the sides of his head.
He grasped at his scalp, half expecting his head to split open and let forth a burst of trapped steam, but fortunately for him no such thing happened. Instead, the pain receded as quickly as it had arrived, and he suddenly had a grasp of the words they'd only just spoken to him.
[I'm sorry, but I don't know you or even remember speaking with you, let alone do I have any idea of how I ended up here...]
"Paenitet me, sed non novi te vel etiam tecum loqui memini, nedum mihi ideam habeo quomodo hic finierim..." Barris spoke, now well versed in the Latin.
[He knows of the rising rebellion amongst the people. He's clearly withholding such knowledge from us, and until we receive the reinforcements from Caesar, we're in a desperate situation with such hidden enemies amongst our midst here in Albion...]
"Seit rebellionem in populo. A nobis plane abstinet, donec auxilia a Caesare accipimus, cum tam occultis hostibus inter nostros hic in Albione desperatus sumus." Carbus Carnum stood, pounding his fist down upon a marble table as he spoke, his Roman armour gleaming in the sunlight.
[Oh? I remember this! This was all about you guys cracking your eggs on the little end, and your enemies cracking their eggs on the big end! Little Endians and Big Endians! Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be tiny? Like really small compared to me?]
"Oh? Hoc memini! Haec omnia de vobis guys sunt ova in parvo fine crepuisse, et hostes ova eorum in magnum finem crepuisse! Parva Endians et Big Endians! Exspecta paulisper, nonne putaris esse pusillum? Velut vere parva comparatio mihi?" Barris struggled to piece together what these men of the Roman court were trying to ascertain, only coming up with a few shreds of a book he'd once read by Jonathan Swift.
[This man is very clearly a fool! A buffoon and jester, his words are infecting us with his folly, while the rebellion is gaining in strength and support amongst the people!]
"Hic homo praeclare stultus! Scurra et ioculator, verba eius nos stultitiam inficiunt, dum rebellio in populo robur ac robur obtinet." Carbus Carnum once again offered a perspective on the basis of his military expertise.
[We don't even know who their leader is... and yet this man's name is mentioned prominently amidst the scribe's request for supplies in the form of heavy furs and iron ore! I tell you, he is working with them, perhaps as their secretive quartermaster?]
"Nescimus quidem quis eorum dux sit... et tamen hoc nomen hominis eminenter memoratur inter rogationem scribae commeatus in modum pellium gravium et ferri chalcitidis! Dico tibi, laborat cum illis fortasse secretivus eorum magister?" Carbus continued driving his point how to those present in attendance of his more serious session of Republic court.
[It is true. It seems that these supplies are of purpose only for one thing and one thing alone. They're building an army to rise against us.]
"Verum est. Ad septimum sic proceditur. Videtur quod ista suppeditatio non sit nisi ad unum et ad unum solum. Exercitum contra nos aedificant." Ponderosus backed Carbus Carnum, though slightly hesitantly, for he was not a warrior but a strategist and one of the finests of the Roman court.
One of the men of the court raised his hand.
[The court recognizes Selenus Maximus, Mathematician, Doctor and Astrologer.]
"Aula Selenum Maximum, Mathematicum, Doctorem et Astrologum agnoscit." one of the courtisans shouted at the top of his lungs.
[Stand and address your peers, Selenus Maximus.]
"Sta, et tuos alloque pares, Selene, Maxime." the man at the head of the room spoke confidently and asertively.
[There is one other possibility and we have seen that there is a foul mind, a crafty one of such wiles that they might be playing us one against the other, merely by the mention of this jester's name. Sewing the seeds of mistrust so that we call into question his words, and lose the advantage of his insight.]
"Est aliud possibilitas, et vidimus esse mentem impuram, callidam talium versutum, ut nos invicem luderent, solo nomine ioculatoris. Sutura diffidentiam, ut in dubium vocamus verba eius, et utilitatem perspiciamus." Selenus Maximus spoke suggestively, but yet with an air of humble reproach before the leadership.
[This man's words by themselves are enough to sew the seeds of any mistrust, for they are the rambling of a rampant fool...]
"Verba hominis haec sola satis sunt cuivis diffidentiae semina consuere, sunt enim stulte vagabundi." Carbus presented his statement with comedic folly and humour, rousing many of the Roman court to laugh in his support.
[And yet he has intimate knowledge of their most sacred shrine here in Albion. The Standing Stones...]
"Et tamen hic in Albione sacratissimae suae aediculae notitiam intimat. Lapides stantes..." Ponderosus reminded them of Barris importance.
[The Standing Stones are no more a dangerous weapon, than is a calendar or the sticks that Druids use to wytch the water to build their wells...]
"Lapides stantes non magis telum periculosum sunt quam calendarium aut ligna quae druidum aqua ad puteos suos faciendas utuntur." Carbus Carnum challenged Ponderosus' assumptions about Barris and the Standing Stones.
[Remember, with a calendar we are able to time the strength of our military to coincide with the wrath of nature. A formidable weapon far more in strength than even our strongest Phalanx.]
"Memento, cum fasti^ temporis vires militiae nostrae cum ira naturae congruere possimus. Telum formidabile longe viribus magis quam etiam fortissimum Phalanx." Ponderosus reminded the court why he was considered amongst the wisest of men in their ranks.
[Then lead the jester there, and if he can't utilize it to help us against our enemies, then perhaps we can sacrifice him the same way the Druids sacrifice their woodland friends in their rites?]
"Tum ioculatorem illuc duc, quo si uti non potest ut contra hostes adiuvet, num forte eodem modo ei possumus sacrificare druidibus suis silvestribus amicis suis ritibus immolare?" Carbus Carnum suggested, picking up his helmet from the table and tucking it under his arm.
[All in favour, say: aye.]
"Omnes in gratia, dicite: immo." the man at the head of the court addressed them.
There was a resounding response of aye, and their session was finished and Barris' fate had been decided.
[Uhhhhh... so how is it that Druids sacrifice their woodland friends? Just in the point of interest on my part?]
"Uhhhhh... so how is it that Druids sacrifice their woodland friends? Just in the point of interest on my part?" asked Barris as he was summarily surrounded by Carbus' own guards.
[They are prepared for immortality and to assist the heathen gods of Druids, by having their hearts cleaved from their bodies and their flesh offered on the altar.]
"Ad inmortalitatem praeparantur, diis gentilibus druidum, qui corpori adhaeserint, et in aris carnes adhaeserint." Ponderosus responded to Barris question.
[I see. Is there any way I could take a raincheck on this? Maybe come back another day? I could bribe you with this crystal...?]
"Video. Estne ulla via de hac raincheck potui accipere? Forsitan alio die redeo? Tibi hoc cristallum reddere potui...?" Barris opened his hand, and revealed a tiny gem of perfect crystalline clarity that had somehow found its way into his grasp between the museum, his conversation with Mila, and then his arrival in the Roman court.
Unfinished Penrose Imperium
Some seven billion lightyears away, on an unimaginably huge construct that encircled a black hole, harvesting the zero-point energy imbalance that arose from the event horizon and regular space, an alarm sounded, ringing through all hundred million kilometers of corridor that lined the construct, finally echoing into the offices of a large bipedal like man, whose armour was very similar to that of Carbus Carnum some seven billion lightyears away and a few hundred years breadth in time.
"Did somebody say crystal?!!!" he spoke in a language very similar to English, after which he began laughing a most sinister laughter that too echoed through the hundred million kilometers of corridor that lined the construct, before his wife yelled at him from the bedroom, where she happened to be knitting holiday stockings for that evening.
"Could you keep it down honey! I'm trying to finish the last of our holiday knitting you know!" she said to him from the other room.
All at once, a tremendous build up of steam seaped out through fissures in his ears, the pressure unbelievably powerful as his anger peaked.
"'Right dear. Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to keep it down..." he said quietly, as he closed the door to their bedroom and stepped out into his office and over to a holographic monitor.
"I want you to find me that source of crystal! Immediately!" he pounded his fist down upon his desk.
"Honey! Could you keep it down! My soap opera is just starting..." came his wife's voice from the bedroom.
"Sorry honey..." he said timidly, then turning to his second in command.
"I want you to gather every ship in our fleet! And then some! We're going on a little trip because as you know, this universe isn't for big enough for both crystals and black holes. There's only enough room for for black hole powered supercivilizations like us!" he ordered his second in command.
"And pick me up a double double coffee if you could at the nearest Timmy's?" he added.
"Very well Sir..." his second in command responded, about ready to activate his entanglement displacement device.
"Oh... and don't forget to leave the little stir stick in!" their leader added.
"Right away, Made!" his second in command responded.
"Wait a second. Did you just call me a Maid?" their leader responded.
"Yes Sir. You're our Mighty And Deadly Emperor, or MADE for short," the second in command neglected to inform the Emperor that he and his men were having a laugh at the Emperor's expense.
"Ahhh. Very clever of you and somewhat convenient I'd imagine..." the MADE responded.
"If that will be all Sir, I'll be off to Timmy's to get your coffee..." his second in command disappeared upon activation of his entanglement displacement device.
When the second in command was gone, the Emperor addressed the third in command:
"When he gets back, have him vapourized. After you get my coffee from him. Don't forget the stir stick either! From that point, you'll be promoted to my second in command," the Emperor's face grew contorted as a maniacal laughter erupted from him once again.
"Oh, how wonderful Sir," the third in command spoke with a horrid sense of dread.
And with that, the soon to be deceased second in command gathered the immensely vast fleet of the Emperor, and upon the retrieval of his double double coffee, they left on the hours long trip through a network of interconnected worm holes, one of which was cleverly concealed on the far side of our sun.
Unfinished Sanctum
Space, despite its apparent simplicity, is actually a very complex thing, hence why so many human resources over years had been spent developing the technology of storage space. As George Carlin, a noteable historian and learned scholar in the science of comedy had once explained, the only real thing that we need in life is a place to put our stuff.
Over thousands of years, as humanity accumulated more and more stuff, we gave these storage spaces ever more elaborate and creative names. Initially, there was the cubby hole, a decidedly tiny space where ancient humanity would store their rocks and pepples (primitive tools at that time), and maybe a clean pair of porcupine hide underwear or two, which were the only human invention that was shorter lived than the 8-track tape.
There was the chest, a storage space that didn't need to be stored inside, as it was its self-contained inside, which was its greatest flaw. Soon after its invention, another crafty human came along and invented the hope chest, aptly named as such as a form of optimism that went along the lines: "I hope that someone doesn't simply come along and walk away with my chest".
Naturally, many people did walk away with them, often burying these chests and hope chests with immense hidden treasures, which led to the development of the inside of doors storage, as few people were incapable of walking away with a two storey home.
Hence, at the end of many beds in said homes, one would find a hope chest, though the motive for its name had been reworked to: "I hope that nobody finds my sex toys in this chest". Little did they know that most other chests that had been stolen before the invention of the house, were often filled and buried with sex toys. Information that never quite made it to encyclopodias, upon the discovery of buried pirate treasure, instead often flooding the market for second-hand sex toys, which jump started Amazon three hundred years before the invention of the internet.
Soon, our storage spaces had wheels, in the form of the boot (or trunk as they call it in the new world) and the glove box (or glove compartment in the new world), and we could literally drive our stuff around. Ironically, despite the advances in technology, storage spaces still mostly contained sex toys. Ahhhh, what a thought, seeing her in her nice red lipstick and that plaid lingerie I got her for x-mas last year... Alright, enough about sex (in this paragraph).
All of the time human beings had been busy creating places to put their stuff, another group of people had been busy tampering with the aether in trying to find ways to weave reality (in mostly bizarre ways) until they accidentally happened across a space so hidden, that it actually occupied the space between our own time and space, in another dimension. This place, they would eventually come to call: the Midspace, but only because the name Timbuktu was already taken.
Using their aether weaving skills, these early crafters managed to carve out an immense keep within the Midspace, before a very angry and disgruntled man came and took it away from them. He lived in there for a very long time, though we'll never be so sure just how long, because time doesn't pass the same way in the Midspace as it does everywhere else, in much the same way that you could leave a tuna sandwich on the counter in the Midspace, and it would theoretically never, ever go bad.
As it turns out, this was entirely because the Midspace disobeyed the second-law of thermodynamics, hence Entropy did not exist in the Midspace as one of the universal markers, and as the arrow for the direction of the flow of time. This of course put a serious damper on the market for refridgerators and freezers in the Midspace, leading eventually to the people who lived there storing their ice cream in the cupboards, another deftly crafted storage space of human invention.
It was speculated that the biggest reason that angry fellow eventually left the giant keep they'd built in the Midspace, was simply because he couldn't keep his vast wine collection chilled, so he instead moved to a dark forest in the heart of France, where years later, a group of those meddling weavers of the aether would find him again, and foil his plans to bring refridgeration to the Midspace.
After he'd gained the support of the refridgeration industrial complex, he once again came back to the Midspace, with a tremendous army who pounded the walls of that great keep, until eventually the weavers of aether retaliated and obliterated the angry man's entire army.
He left, returning to France once again, even calming down considerably and making friends with his neighbours, but not before he took the life of the lover of one of those weavers of the aether. An artist of unreknowned ability named Mila Ren Dubel.
She became isolated and withdrawn, lost in her loneliness, eventually disappearing altogether as the spaces in reality began overlapping one another, and before long, she was happily reunited with her long lost love without ever realizing that he'd been gone.
And so, without ever knowing that their reality had been altered so drastically, the Midspace once again began to thrive, and these weavers of the aether, being ever so frisky and with much time on their hands, had many children who in turn eventually moved into the giant keep, and in the process securing the future of the Sanctum Seclorum of the Midspace. Albeit, a very, very crowded Sanctum.
Of course, with need being the mother of all invention, and the father of all procrastination, the women of the Sanctum went to work building plans for an addition to the Sanctum, which was really just their uinfinished basement, which needed a lot of renovation work so that their children could all move into the basement, like all children eventually did on the Aerth. Of course, after decades of procrastination, the men of the Sanctum eventually ran out of excuses and began renovating the Sanctum's basement, which was a vast system of caves that ran beneath their giant keep, though it is still largely debated as to whether the motivating factor to get the men moving on the project was actually when the women got together and cut-off all sex until the project was done.
The Sanctum itself took over a hundred years of Aerth time to construct, if measured in human lifespans, while the basement of the Sanctum took only two weekends, before the children were forced to move in, and the sex lives of the parents resumed.
Over the course of their occupation of the Sanctum's basement, it turned into its own entirely self contained village of over three thousand people, all the unemployed teenaged kids of the residents of the Sanctum. All of them skilled in the manipulation of the aether, not to mention other arts and crafts that had long been lost to history.
With the renewed vigour of these unemployed basement dwelling teenagers, the village thrived and became a tourist draw of the residents of the Sanctum, even becoming a vacation spot in addition to being a place where the residents of the Sanctum could buy knick knacks, like potions, scrolls and even crystal balls amidst the scenic market of the underground village, all of which was lit by the magical bioluminescent crystals of eternity. Oops, I've said too much and might have even revealed the MacGuffin behind this entire story.
There goes another. I'll just file the rest of this story under the same storage space I put: Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity or Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative - Crystals Are Forever and of course, my most recent failure: Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative - Lost Riff.
Just kidding. Where was I? Oh yes, unemployed teenagers with far too much time on their hands, especially having finished Elden Ring several times already.
With all of that pent up energy, they built the first and only tourist village in the Midspace and the Sanctum Seclorum, and became one of the greatest successes since any children moved out of the upstairs and into their parents' basement, which was good, because on this particular day, there happened to be a delegation present in the Sanctum Seclorum, and they were on this particular moment (which would be impossible without entropy or time, but we'll use the term in reference to equivalent human lifespan), touring the Village of Eternity.
"In two weekends? Most impressive that you've achieved all of this in such a short time..." Merethal walked with two of his enjoys at his side, on his left were Yirfir Lacharme, temporary acting Matron Mistress Wytch of the Sanctum, and her husband Patron Of The Aether,Jasmer McCavanaugh.
"...it was all accomplished mostly over long weekends..." Yirfir responded to Merethal as they walked through the market square.
"...and very effectively motivated I might add..." Jasmer added to Yirfir's remark.
"Their market economy is self sustaining?" asked Merethal.
"Absolutely. Without any pressure from us, they seem to have all picked their own vocations, as if by some uncanny intuition of the future, although in the Midspace, future and past are both woven into one in ways that are difficult for most to grasp," Yirfir explained to Merethal.
"With or without know, one should always go with the flow," Merethal remarked, drawing upon a saying taught to him by his mentors of the Order Of The Life Well.
"We try to maintain a holistic awareness that spans both forwards and backwards in time, with regard to the Prime Plane of existence..." Yirfir replied.
"And yet you do this without any school of Temporality in this wondrous village? How do they go, if without the flow?" asked Merethal.
"Despite their being very successfully apt in their first endeavor away from home, we keep a close eye on them..." Jasmer began.
"Yes... only intervening when absolutely necessary..." Yirfir looked to Jasmer, perhaps a bit embarrassed to be speaking of such matters.
"It all seems to civil. You mean there've been times where you...?" Merethal was very diplomatic when speaking of personal matters.
"Yes... We have had to put our foot down occasionally, being the Sanctum's representation and all. We don't have any children of our own..." Jasmer responded.
"But Matron Thara Lansmore of the Order Of The Night Wytch has three. Two boys, her own and a daughter, adopted she is. Being ever so ambitious to meet up to the achievements of Matron Thara, they once aspired to have a party..." Yirfir explained to Merethal.
"It was more like a concert, really, and of course being sons of one of the most capable summoners in the Sanctum, they summoned an audience... in addition to the three thousand inhabitants of Eternity, for a total audience of nearly a hundred thousand. Three thousand Aerthlings, and ninety seven thousand Warriors Of The Shadow Rite. The only Idigenous homonid-like species in the Shadow-plane, and a very rowdy bunch... who immensely enjoy celebrations..." Jasmer explained.
"Even more so with a few pitchers of Shadowmead in their gullets..." Yirfir laughed uneasily upon recalling the situation.
"How did you tame so many concert goers without disaster or destruction? This village is absolutely pristeen!" Merethal nodded to the two envoys accompanying him.
"Well, it wasn't easy. Both Karas and Bavel certainly are very civil themselves and yet quite rambunctious when it comes to a good time... but their sister..." Jasmer paused, Yirfir suddenly cutting in.
"Domina. She can be very influential... and the bigger the crowd, the more ample her influence tends to be. She's a mind weaver, and a natural one at that. Thankfully she kept her sense about her, and was able to calm the entire crowd down before it turned into an incident. By the end of the concert, the Shadow Warriors returned to the Shadow Plane in an orderly fashion, while the residents of Eternity managed to sell quite a few t-shirts to them... Not without the influence of Domina of course... but we'll keep that secret ourselves..." Yirfir finished the story for Merethal.
"I believe that as one of the more aggressively political members of the Order Of The Life Well, that such situations could be better averted with the presence of an ample population of Seers. The Sanctum, if not Eternity seems to be shy of them..." Merethal suggested.
"Since the Battle of the Sanctum, we lost many of our seers. The Watchers Of The Lore Of Stars suffered the greatest casualties of any of the Orders of the Sanctum, as they were a required presence as support troops for our Elementalists and Healers as you know. We've been unable to replenish their numbers, especially with so much energy in the Sanctum focused on rebuilding the Order Of The Aerth Mother. Nelony Ardbloem's current tasking and our highest priority," Yirfir told Merethal.
"Perhaps then this is an indication of just how important having good Seers is for the Sanctum. Upon the Aerth, good weather forecasters are the difference between safety and tragedy for many. Seers would undoubtedly benefit the effort to rebuild the Wytch's Order of the Aerth Mother, and replenish the focus on environmental health..." Merethal spoke confidently.
"Perhaps Merethal is right," Yirfir agreed.
"We're already stretched thin in the department of administrators. We're lacking the capacity to spread our focus so thin and in so many different directions, given the losses during the Battle of the Sanctum. Are you offering to assist us in this endeavor, Merethal?" asked Jasmer.
"I'm afraid not Jasmer. We too are stretched far too thin to be of any meaningful help other than our existing duties. Perhaps the best solution isn't the most obvious, but perchance the one so close to us that we fail to see it?" Merethal responded, both of his envoys nodding in approval.
To be continued...
Credits and attribution:
Artwork: Amy Wong, Wendy Pusey, Ghastly, Birdman, Brian Joseph Johns, Daz3D, Unreal Engine...Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...
Extra Special thank you to InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.
Extra Special thank you to Adobe, especially their award legendary image editing and compositing application Photoshop, who make much of the artwork on Shhhh! Digital Media possible.
Extra Special thank you to Corel for their Painter application, which is a great companion tool when combined with the power of Adobe Photoshop.
Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.
Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.
Ask Seki Sensei | Online Katana Lessons! - Study Iaido And Kobudo Online
Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)
Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.
Thank you to Captain Crunch from 89 Steps.
Special thanks to John Paul Young and the Cardboard Brains, whom you can now visit at https://www.ermiescub.com
Special thanks to Fifth Social Club Toronto (appears in Two Butterflies episodes) and The Drake (appears in Dragon Butterfly).
Something to give you perspective: The very first teacher had no formal education, didn't graduate and was self taught, but only because they had no other choice. We do.
Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...
Extra Special thank you to InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.
Extra Special thank you to Adobe, especially their award legendary image editing and compositing application Photoshop, who make much of the artwork on Shhhh! Digital Media possible.
Extra Special thank you to Corel for their Painter application, which is a great companion tool when combined with the power of Adobe Photoshop.
Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.
Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.
Ask Seki Sensei | Online Katana Lessons! - Study Iaido And Kobudo Online
Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)
Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.
Thank you to Captain Crunch from 89 Steps.
This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner. Both photos depicted here are of me and were taken in the last two months.
This photo is the most recent, though I've since shaven my pseudo-beard off as I can't stand it. It is so darned itchy. Yes, that's me, the same guy in the photo above, and in the photo below. Try to take care of myself health wise as well, and eat healthy and intermittently fast twice a month to maintain good health.
My name isn't Bobby or Bob. I'm not Chuck either. My name isn't Jake "N" either. I'm not Terence or Clarence or named Trent, though the character Trent from Stories From The End, and We Who Stand On Guard, is based upon my experiences working as an digital/audio/visual tech for the hotel industry in Toronto back in the 1990s.
I've setup for big name corporate meetings and translation booths for the United Nations back in the 1990s while moonlighting as a professional musician. I'm a trained programmer and vendor trained computer technician as well from the 1990s. I have formal training in several martial arts though I'm of intermediate skill at best, and I prefer dealing with situations with my brain, rather than with violence.
Where I live, and elsewhere, I have a lot of people who are identity traffickers, and my identity is quite often a hot target for this kind of activity. So, I take a lot of steps to protect it. I'm fortunate that I'm not mentally ill (I'd certainly never stigmatize those who struggle with such issues on a daily basis), and that I don't have any substance dependency issues at all (I don't even smoke). I do enjoy a good glass of wine, or vodka coolers every so often though, as I believe that its healthy to relieve tension with enjoyment in a variety of different means. I'd never join any cult that trafficks in identities, making people play the equivalent of musical chairs to earn their own identity for the day, while avoiding ending up with someone else's. Much like Barris, I generally stay away from zealous and dogmatic religious ideologies as well, especially those that enforce unreasonable limits with regard to a person's sexuality, or oppress women by usurping their right to self-determination, especially where it concerns having the final say with regard to matters involving their own body, though when it comes to play, having and giving control can be a quite enticing means of bonding and trust with a woman. I am entirely monogamous, though when single, I don't see that enjoying adult eroticism online is in any way a form of cheating, when you're single. I've never hired out for sex, but I believee that Southeast Asia and Europe have a high regard for women who work in the sex trade, and are a cornerstone of women's reproductive rights in that regard, despite my unwillingness to hire out for sexuality.
I work hard creating content and keeping Shhhh! Digital Media relevant and given its current status as an investment, I'm hoping that it will pay off at some point in the near future.
Therefore, I go to great lengths to protect it as being my brainchild and my hardwork that led to the realization of what is has become thus far, while protecting the investment that my life mentors made in me, and protecting the artists who've contributed to Shhhh! Digital Media along its journey thus far.
I've setup for big name corporate meetings and translation booths for the United Nations back in the 1990s while moonlighting as a professional musician. I'm a trained programmer and vendor trained computer technician as well from the 1990s. I have formal training in several martial arts though I'm of intermediate skill at best, and I prefer dealing with situations with my brain, rather than with violence.
Where I live, and elsewhere, I have a lot of people who are identity traffickers, and my identity is quite often a hot target for this kind of activity. So, I take a lot of steps to protect it. I'm fortunate that I'm not mentally ill (I'd certainly never stigmatize those who struggle with such issues on a daily basis), and that I don't have any substance dependency issues at all (I don't even smoke). I do enjoy a good glass of wine, or vodka coolers every so often though, as I believe that its healthy to relieve tension with enjoyment in a variety of different means. I'd never join any cult that trafficks in identities, making people play the equivalent of musical chairs to earn their own identity for the day, while avoiding ending up with someone else's. Much like Barris, I generally stay away from zealous and dogmatic religious ideologies as well, especially those that enforce unreasonable limits with regard to a person's sexuality, or oppress women by usurping their right to self-determination, especially where it concerns having the final say with regard to matters involving their own body, though when it comes to play, having and giving control can be a quite enticing means of bonding and trust with a woman. I am entirely monogamous, though when single, I don't see that enjoying adult eroticism online is in any way a form of cheating, when you're single. I've never hired out for sex, but I believee that Southeast Asia and Europe have a high regard for women who work in the sex trade, and are a cornerstone of women's reproductive rights in that regard, despite my unwillingness to hire out for sexuality.
https://shop.shhhhdigital.com
Produced at Shhhh! Digital Media
200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Inquiries: brian.joseph.johns@shhhhdigital.com, info@shhhhdigital.com