Introspection

Writing Journal: Writing away on The Adjusters #52. Nothing particularly interesting to report. Except perhaps that I had a tidbit of insight for Book VI that has me reconsider one of my subplots.

Throughout May and June, I'm asking for your input about the sort of kinks you might want to see in The Adjusters.

---

Still somewhat reeling from last week's events in Isla Vista, California. It's nothing new, sadly, but the document that the killer left reads like bad fiction, and is altogether depressing. The one (only?) bright spot to come out of those events is the #YesAllWomen movement that with some luck opened a few people's eyes. Though I had to avoid like the plague most comment threads on the topic, because man! you can really see the filthy crud rising up to the surface.

Every time something like that happens, it forces me to think about my own role in the grand scheme of things. I mean, I spin tales involving misogynistic characters whose contempt for consent and agency is extreme. I know, I know—it's all fantasy, it's all fiction, but fantasy and fiction do not occur in a vacuum, they are embedded in a sociological context, and worse, those stories actually are part of the sociological context and help form it.

It's something I struggle with once in a while. Not the part about having dark fantasies—I've read enough psychology to not be particularly worried about that. But sharing them, in the way that I do, it has an impact. And I just don't know what that impact is.

I don't have answers. Just more questions. So I'll just keep reflecting about this.

In the meantime, let me close with two stories, one for whichever mood you happen to find yourself in on this rainy Friday night.

The first is a happy story where all is essentially rosy and loving and sexy, Beauty and the Geek by Frozenhero1: “The rumors were true; the geek was hung.”

The second is a dark depressing story where everyone is a bastard and the sex is... well... special, A Study in Scarlett, by AMoveableBeast: “A man follows the sway of a stripper's hips into depravity.”

Notes for The Adjusters Book IV

Writing Journal: Mmm. The writing is going well for The Adjusters #52—clear starting point, clear ending point, clear sequence of events in between, what's not to love?—but I'm looking ahead at the rest of Book V, and I'm wondering if I need some sort of framing story for some of the installments. I don't want to do it, but I'm worried that without one it's going to ask too much from readers. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Throughout May and June, I'm asking for your input about the sort of kinks you might want to see in The Adjusters.

---

A year ago, I said I would share my notes for Book IV, for people that are interested in process. Well, here they are.

A couple of things to note: (1) the file was saved in April 2013 while I was writing the second installment of Book IV (2) it's strongly stream-of-consciousness, since that's how I brainstorm high-level structure and theme, and instead of erasing old ideas I tend to copy and modify, which means that (3) there is a fair amount of repetition and things that lead nowhere, although you start recognizing the current Book IV towards the end, even though (4) it's pretty clear after reading these notes that the vast majority of the low-level details as well as the idea of having flashbacks arose during the actual writing process.

Oh, and in typical classified-document fashion, some of the notes have been redacted, since they could potentially spoil future books.

BOOK IV: Running to Stand Still

Jenn at the The Craven-Wilford Institute for Mental Health?

— Run by a subsidiary of ADCorp  
— An actual institute for research, with NIH funding,
specialized in sexual disorders. A legit place
— There are two special wings 
— One wing dedicated to an interesting syndrome, a
degenerating neurological disorder due to an effect of the
Specials, one that causes a craving for semen that doesn’t
get sated, except temporarily, and for shorter and shorter
periods of time, with increased neurological disorders. Can
be slowed down somewhat, but never eliminated.   
— ADC researcher keep an eye on the them, but not directly,
not often—cameras everywhere 
— There’s also a floor/wing (underground, heavily
securitized, no real direction communication, special
elevator) where the Specials are kept, heavily sedated, but
sometimes awoken and studied. (Doctor McKinsey) 
— The top floor is where ###################################  
— Jenn ends up there, as a weird syndrome case, picked up in
a Buffalo homeless shelter.  
— She’s not on the same path as the others—no neurological 
defects. And more violent. Kept sedated.  
— Her goal: get out, but also find a way to control her
cravings  

— There are security cameras, but at night, the team in
charge has been bribed: one has a drug habit that Gutierrez
or something is happy to provide for; the other is just weak
and subordinate, and does what he’s told—he’s the one that
#########################################################
####################

— Gutierrez discovered, by accident, that a particular pill
(an antipsychotic) turns those girls—the Specials
leftovers—into fairly compliant girls. Jenn is different,
though. That antipsychotic doesn’t work. [suggests that
she’s not syndromatic, then. Who knows. No one!] Jenn’s
syndrome is different: no neurological damage witnessed. 

— Jenn befriends another girl, and eventually defends her
against Gutierrez, who punishes her by restraining her, or
something. 

— A team of overseers comes to visit (from ADC). ######
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
##############################################.

— Jenn gets her revenge, the girl defending herself. But
before she’s saved, ##################################### 

— Jenn makes a deal with the nice guy to keep her satieted
when a craving comes—he sacrifices himself, and eventually
falls for her. Biff left her with an inability to talk about
what happened to her, and an inability to contact
Daniel. (And she speaks of herself in the third person, as
Jennie.) Only way is indirect, through fiction. A loophole
that Biff had built in so she could write and come up with
stuff. [cf Book II?] That prohibition will remain,
deep. [The cravings will also remain, although she will
learn to control them better via meditation and self
control.] 

— Later, ##############################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################
#######################################################

— Plot: Jenn wants to get out, escape. She cannot beg to be
let go. (She can, but she won’t be let go on her own
word. And she can’t identify herself.) She tries to work on
the nice guy to help her out—by seducing him, being nice to
him, keeping her sedated just enough to be able to
talk. Meanwhile, she has to deal with Gutierrez who wants to
use her, and sells her, and there’s one guy who’s “really”
interested in her. By the end, Gutierrez is arrested, and
the nice guy is reassigned. She doesn’t know that—she waits
for him, as per the plan—but ###########################
#################.

— When does Jenn send the story? She asks the nice guy for a
pen and paper, leaves him the story.

(1) Jenn wins — Gutierrez is arrested.  
(2) Jenn gives the nice guy the manuscript. Makes
rendez-vous for the next day.  
(3) But ############################## (after the girl
thanks her copiously—though she’s still doomed per her
syndrome) 


Prologue: Meet Sanderson and Gutierrez and Jenn and some of
the other girls? (no real names, except for Mouse)

Then: Jenn tells her backstory, what she remembers
(everything) from her time on the freeway and that in the
motel before heading up to Buffalo. We hear the doctors, and
Gutierrez, and Sanderson at her bedside.

Corruption: the ward doctor is in Gutierrez’ pocket. (Why?
He’s into rather sick stuff, and Gutierrez provides him with
it. Drugs? Something more ridiculous?) Change the dosage so
that she’s off meds during the weekly parties.

How does Sanderson end up controlling the medication?
Befriend the nurse, a nice woman, who feel for Sanderson,
who likes her too, but he’s really taken with Jenn.

The first party.

Sanderson cuts the dosage in half, she half wakes up, but
has to continue faking, asks for her to be in the main
room. (She’s brought there sometimes, but never interacts,
since the drugs tend to make her detached from reality.) She
gets fondled a lot. 

There’s a girl that helps Jenn (Mouse, who was a promising
academic), that one of the Johns really likes, especially
when they amp up how young she looks. She’s tiny, flat, and
he has her in pigtails and little schoolgirl costume. Asian
cliché? 

Key points:

— Jenn defends Mouse 
— Sanderson falls for Jenn 
— Cannot contact Daniel directly, and stay away from him,
but asks for pencil and paper to write story (the one
loophole that...)   
— Sanderson gets a non-overlapping shift with
Gutierrez—claims something—to get some time alone with
Jenn. 
— Sanderson mucks with the camera in the room (already done)
to provide a constant feed—just for the room? Yes, otherwise
too difficult. (Could arrange it for a path out.) Need quite
a few. Suspicious.  
— Affords some time to chat, make out. Mouse comes in to say
hi? She knows what’s going on. She knows Jenn is awake. She
pays attention. 

— the guy who’s really taken with Mouse wants to purchase
her. 
— When everything goes down, Jenn sets it up so that
Gutierrez is taken. How? 
— Any interesting set scenes? (It should be a short book.)

Epilogue: ############################################
##########################################.

Do I want a big gaggle of girls?

One of them likes Gutierrez—or more to the point, she’s
willing to sell herself for favors and to make her life
easier. (She was an addict before being bowled over.)

These girls are in the throes of Freak withdrawal. It
doesn’t resolve the mind control aspect—they are still
programmed to do as they have been told, but on top of that
they have uncontrollable cravings. (The bad cases are
programmed to not act on those impulses, meaning that 
they are condemned to go crazy.)

All the girls are medicated. Jenn also, but more heavily,
since hers is a more disturbing form of sexual mania. She
resists, most of the time. (It’s blissful. No need to fight
it. The drugs fight it for me. I can rest. She gave up,
during her time in NY. Just gave up. Getting ready to give
up again. Except that the drugs let her pick it back up.)

She notices Sanderson liking her. That might be her
chance. The look in his eyes reminds her of Daniel, which
gives her another reason to fight on. Imagining him
distraught. And her family? Her mother? What did they think
happened to her. She remembers the last thing she said to
Daniel, the last thing she fought against, castrating him. 

Crew: 
- Mouse (lithe asian, vulnerable, shy, but smart, almost a
cliché)  
- Cassandra (bitchy, dominant, manipulative, submissive to
dominant men though, cock addicted) 
- Sophie (lesbian, not willingly) 
- Sam (cheerleader, a slave to her master, mindless, does
whatever someone tells her to do. Prone to abuse.)

Overarching arc:
 Jenn is tired, and happy about the bliss
that she’s been sent into, pill provided. It makes it
tolerable to remember, to live through her ordeal. This is
not a bad place. Not a bad place at all. There are dark
moments, but maybe weekly, and it could be worse. It was
worse. 

When she sees Sanderson, and especially the way he looks at
her, it stirs something inside her, something she had
stopped thinking about. Daniel. The way Sanderson looks at
her is very much the way Daniel looked at her those first
times. It breaks her heart. 

She vows to escape and find him—how? No idea. Stay and wait?
But she can’t—or at least, she needs to leave this place,
it’s evil. Actually, maybe her initial plan is to write so
that she can tell Daniel where she is, in the only way she
can. (But then a ticking time bomb must appear. If she
doesn’t leave, something bad is going to happen to her. But
what?) 

The pills subdue her physical drive and physical desire,
what Biff told her she would feel, and they’re a godsend,
although they do make her head woozy and make thinking
difficult, or at least, difficult to keep a single thought
in mind for a long time. It makes her drift. 

Blocks remain, but the physical needs are cut off.

When she has a chance to escape, she ends up deciding to
stay and help Mouse. Again, it’s for naught, but at least
she won’t suffer directly. (Jenn overhears a conversation
between a representative of the guy who wants to purchase
Mouse? He’s talking to someone. Ask Sanderson about
it. Result: he’s a bad man.) 

There’s ###########################. (###############
###################.)

(Maybe get a nod on one of the girls in the previous book
who gets admitted to the CWI for something?)

The girls are all a group of supportive girls, except for
the bitch. But they’re all accused of having the same
delusion—of a man, taking control, of being and feeling
different, changed. It’s part of the sexual mania, a
manifestation of repressed latent desire for a dominant
figure. 

#41: follow Sanderson on his first day on the job. Gutierrez
 takes him under his wing. We discover the girls. Mouse, and
 the bitch. 

#42: Jenn’s backstory and Sanderson and Gutierrez and the
 doctor. End of episode: it’s show time.

#43: The first “party night”. Sanderson’s initiation. You
 get your pick. He goes with Jenn, obviously.  Pre-party. 
 Then the clients arrive. Clean her up.

SEX SCENES: 
— memories of her times on the run 
— Jenn given to Sanderson (he tries to be nice to her, and
she's just hungry!)  
— Fucking Beatrice after a date (set up by her) 
— Jenn fucks Sanderson for the first time, nicely, to take
the edge off. He’s skittish. She’s playful.  
— Mouse gets abused over Jenn, who cannot react yet 
Sex scenes between Jenn & other girls?  Given to the bitch
for domination games?

The story of IV is about Mouse, and about Sanderson? 
— Mouse used to be a rich girl (heir to a fortune?) but she
did not care about love, cared about studying, getting a 
career. Archeology. She was hounded by a suitor who use a
Special to ensnare her? Why are people looking for her? 

First thought: the father of the suitor is looking to buy
her for his son.

Titles: 
Aware 
Awake 
Free

Connections to Charlie’s tale: 
Things to reflect in book IV: 
— Covenant of Whispered Inspiration 
— Theistic Order 
— Charlie uncontrollable because of her blood fever [Carry
as is]  
— Discovered in an inn, turning tricks for the proprietor
[Carry as is] 
— Sarah had a friend, Fawn, who was claimed by Lord Charnia,
while she stood by, impotent. [Who's Charnia? The
abstraction of losing someone you love] 
— Ward with girls victims of blood fever [Carry as is]  
— Sister Myrna, keeps a close eye [Doctor Dante M?]   
— Special passage underneath the ward leading to caves  
— Girls with a suitable submissive tendency get taken to the
caves  
— Signore di Viroli taken with Charlie  
— Di Viroli taken with Sarah too 
— Novice Bora is addicted in the kitchens 
— Novice Viola cedes her place 
— Gertrude is nervous 
— Di Viroli discovers Charlie's identity and is ready to
steal her if Gertrude does not sell her 
— Di Viroli and Charlie fight—he stabs her in the hand 
— Sarah defends Charlie 
— Di Viroli turns on Sarah, and is killed by Charlie.  
[does any of this actually happen?] 


(0) Prologue: we meet Sanderson and Gutierrez, and Jenn, and
some of the girls.  
(1) Jenn tells her backstory, and we hear the doctors, and 
also Gutierrez and Sanderson at her bedside. (Maybe
Sanderson is a doctor? No—need Gutierrez to have some power
over him. But then, how does Sanderson control the
medications?)   
(2) The first party 
(3) Cuts the dose in half, she half-wakes up, but has to
remain in bed, asks for her to be in the main room more
often. She gets fondled. The guard who’s bribbable gets a
bribe for her to talk to the other girls without being seen?   
— There’s a girl that helps Jenn, called Mouse, a tiny
thing, that one John really likes at the parties—he likes
them waify, dressed as a schoolgirl, acting childish. She
gets abused. [Think Ally McBeal] 

Important points: 
— Jenn defends Mouse.  
— Sanderson falls for Jenn.
— Cannot contact Daniel directly, but pencil & paper to
write story. 
— Sanderson gets a non-overlapping shift with Gutierrez  
— Sanderson mucks with the camera to provide a constant
feed—just from the room? Yes, otherwise, too difficult
(Could arrange it for a path out; need quite a few, and well
timed. Cannot be done through bribery?)  
— Affords some time to chat, make out. Mouse comes in to say
hi? She knows? Is she smart still? She was before. Or maybe
find a way to keep it more active?  
— Guy wants to “purchase” Mouse — When it goes down, Jenn
sets it up so that Gutierrez is taken. How?   
— When Jenn defends Mouse, Gutierrez gets real
upset. Punishes her by denying her?  
— Epilogue: #########################################
#####################################################
#######
What happened to Gutierrez? The fool got taken.

Jenn wants to escape, but she ends up sacrificing herself
for Mouse. Why is Mouse in danger?

Ditch first ideas. Mouse used to be strong, willful.
Powerful.  (Prosecutor? DA? ADA? Attorney? Policewoman?) 
turned into a fearful submissive thing, easily bullied.
Taken by a guy she put behind bars? The Connelly brothers?
Maybe she was investigating them, and they took care of her?
Or they finally found her and they want their revenge?
They’re shopping around? 

Jenn’s drugs disable conscious responses and motor neurons,
keeping the autonomic system stable. Her brain is
disconnected from her body. She gets some sensations, such
as pain and arousal, who knows how it affects her. Similar
drugs given to the other girls? Different drugs.

Control for the camera, shuts it down. Clicks it twice. The
camera blinks twice. Then shut off. (Isn’t it noticed. It
is. Depends on who’s in the control room.) Then Mouse
knocks. 

Faith (or Farrah?) went to ############################
#########, because that’s what happened to her sister. What
did happen? (Her sister was ###################; figure out
backstory; do we encounter Faith #############)

Beatrice, the nurse, takes a liking to Sanderson. She’s
having an affair with a doctor, Dante Tromba, who’s married,
but he’s also jealous of her affections. He likes fucking
her in the hospital. He thinks Sanderson is moving in on
her. Another source of tension? 

The girls: 
— Do I want a big crowd of girls? Probably a bad idea.   
— One of the girls likes Gutierrez—or more to the point, is
willing to give herself for favors. That’s how she was
wired.
— These girls are in throes of “wanting” it doesn’t resolve
the mind control aspect—they are still programmed to do what
they were told to do. When they are too uncontrollable, they
are doped up. But they are all medicated up to a point to
take care of the side effects, the craving, the need, the
itch that cannot be scratched. They are fogged up, but still
themselves. Barely.   
— Jenn is kept medicated to coma level because she is so
much deeper into her cravings, but without any of the other
side effects of the degenerescence associated with the
freaks, no nervous system damage, so she’s a special case,
and looked at carefully by researchers.   
— Mouse: acts young, vulnerable, cries easily. Waify.  
— Cassandra: bitchy, dominant, manipulative, cock-addicted,
but submissive to greater shows of force.  
— Sophie: lesbian.  
— Sam: cheerleader, a slave to her master.  
— All supportive of each other, except possibly the
bitch. All girls used to be part of “harems” so they’re used
to be with other girls. (Other girls are loners and we won’t
focus on them?)   
— They all have the same delusion, of a man taking control,
of being/feeling different. When questioned, they talk about
someone different, or when under hypnosis? 
— Again, does it depend on the Freak powers?

Who watches the watchers? The girls are studied while
they’re being studied.

There are two CCTV systems. The one connected to the guards,
the usual one, the one that Gutierrez manages to bribe. And
then there’s the deeper one, the secret one, the one that
the underground research facility uses to study the girls
and the effects of the Freaks. Why are they secretive?
Because otherwise it would be too risky. We can’t have girls
disappearing. Which is one of the reasons why Shawbank was
surprised by Control asking for the DIK girls being taken
away. Which is why the main game of ADC is not to abduct
people, but #########################. The line is thin, but
it’s there, and Davenham was correct in wanting to do that,
even if he realizes that ##############################
#######################################################
#######################

Arc: 
— Jenn is tired, and happy about the bliss that she’s been
sent into, pill provided. It makes it tolerable to remember,
to live through her ordeal.   
— When she sees Sanderson, and especially the way he looks
at her, it stirs something inside her—it was very much the
way Daniel had looked at her, initially. It breaks her
heart. That’s what gives her the resolve to get over the
hump?   
— She vows to escape and find him—how? No idea. Stay and
wait? But she can’t—or at least, she needs to leave this
place it’s evil. And she’s trapped. (The pills subdue her
desires to obey Biff—they’re a gold mine, though they her
head woozy.) The impulses, the voices, are still there, but
she doesn’t need to act on them? She feels she can push
back. Cell phone? Call him? Can’t... why not? Just acts on
the libido, not on the other stuff. Blocks are still there,
it’s the drives that seem resistible. The needs of the
body. Exceedingly dependent on exactly what Biff told her,
and how her brain interpreted those instructions. 
— She has a chance to escape, but she stays and helps
Mouse. Again, it’s for naught, but at least she won’t
suffer.   
— Jenn overhears a conversation between a representative of
the guy who wants to purchase her. He’s talking to
someone. Ask Sanderson about it. Result: he’s a bad man.

Jenn notices Sanderson likes her. That might be her one
chance. But she cannot communicate unless she’s not
medicated, and then she goes nuts. She’s willing to make an
effort for a half-dose? How does Sanderson know? He
experiments? 

Story is about Jenn, Sanderson, and Mouse.

Beatrice -> Violet 
Dante -> Myro Tromba

Who causes problems for the plan? Tromba gets in Sanderson’s
way because he’s jealous.  But even if he did, Jenn gets
distracted by Mouse. Jenn ruins the deal. 

Possible outline (too slow?)  
1 [S] Sanderson is introduced to CWI [meets Violet,
Gutierrez, Tromba, Jenn, Mouse] 
2 [J] Jenn’s view of Agnieska, Sanderson, and Gutierrez.   
3 [S] Sanderson talks to the girls, then presented with the
Party [fucks Jenn] Also sees Violet flirting with
Tromba. Giggling.   
4 [J] Her perspective on the guy after Sanderson, and she
double teams with Mouse and others [someone recognizes
mouse, prison tattoos] Jenn asks Sanderson for help. Also
for pen and paper.   
5 [S] Sanderson figures out a way to get the dosage
right. [Violet?] Tromba is jealous.  
6 [J] Jenn wakes up, sleeps with Sanderson, hatches plan 

— They hatch a plan. Bribing people? Not too good? Not going
to work all the time.  
— Disabling cameras 
— Violet will help. How? She suspects that Gutierrez is
doing something fishy, and she wants to nail him.
— Gutierrez is always careful not to do stuff on camera. 
— Before Jenn enacts the plan, she gives the finished story
to Sanderson, asks him to mail it. (You think it’s time to
worry about your literary career. Please. It’s important.) 
— Sanderson gets intercepted by Tromba 
— Jenn crashes the sale 
— someone records the happening, with Gutierrez finally
losing it.   
— that’s the record that Violet brings to the authorities. 

— what happens to Sanderson? Tromba?  
— Jenn is stopped and put back in her room, where ####
#########################. 

At some point in the future have Jenn wait in the dark, and
she hears the screams. (Maybe with Sanderson—they both
hear. The ghosts. What? He tells her the story.)

Have Lillian mention the fact that there are ghosts—at
night, sometimes they come. (Researchers that need some
data, in person.) Why her? Because she notices things. She
doesn't miss anything. She's smart. It's not because she's a
sub that she's dumb. She doesn't talk. Other girls have
noticed in the past, but their meds were upped. Not her. 

Sanderson #########################################
###################################################
###################################################
###################################################
################################

A Long Love Story

Writing Journal: One scene of the three I have planned for The Adjusters #52 written. It will need to be revised massively, but the foundation is there. Now I get to play with Calypso a little bit.

Throughout May and June, I'm asking for your input about the sort of kinks you might want to see in The Adjusters.

---

On the road this weekend, so not a lot to report, but I'll leave you with a long story I ran across a while back that I rediscovered a few days ago. It's a sweet love story with a lot of hot sex. A bit heavy-handed with the armchair psychology at times, but the characters are pleasant, so that's forgivable. And unlike many of the things I'm attracted to, the author stays away from any dark theme. (Disclaimer: I'm only halfway through it, so for all I know, things go south in the second half of the tale...)

Ann: A Love Story, by Mimaster: “Long road to Ann begins at Dawn.” (The title is a pun.)

A Story Site I Didn't Know About

Writing Journal: Started writing The Adjusters #52 after fleshing out the nine stories that will make up Book V. The idea for Book V, as I mentioned in the past: independent stories giving a snapshot of what our characters are up to. Loosely inspired by the “A Day in the Life” installments from Book II. Except different.

Throughout May and June, I'm asking for your input about the sort of kinks you might want to see in The Adjusters.

---

Last week I ran across a story site that I had never seen before, which is not necessarily surprising in and of itself, but it's actually a pretty good site, and that's the surprising bit: Lush Stories.

Supposedly, they have more than 27000 stories. The site navigation is a bit of a pain, I'm sad to say: it's busy, and browsing the stories is something of a slow process, but I did find a bunch of stories I enjoyed without looking too hard. Here's a sample of what caught my eye.

Erika the Sex Slave by HotStuffPriya: “18 year old college student Erika becomes a sex slave”

Ashley - The Office Fuck Bunny by Happy9: “Ashley becomes the office fuck bunny, hired to fuck clients.”

Good Girl Gone Bad by Kali_Urriah: “This good girl discovering her inner slut.”

The Escort And The Dirty Substitute by Dancing_Doll: “One night as an escort leads Alison into a spiral of sexual depravity that awakens the whore within.” (There's also a sequel, The Escort And The Dirty Conscience.)

If you check things out and find a good story on there, feel free to let the rest of us know.

Request for Comments

Writing Journal: On a small writing pause. I've spent the last few days putting into some semblance of order the nearly 6000 words of notes I have on The Adjusters trying to extract out the bits that will make up Book V. A thankless job, but one I have to go through before forging ahead. Speaking of notes, I did not forget my promise to show you all the notes I made for Book IV several months back. Expect those in the next few weeks.

---

Speaking of forging ahead, between going through my notes and digesting the comments on the last installment of The Adjusters, it might be a good time to ask my audience—huh, that's you, folks—whether there's anything specific you'd like to see in an upcoming story line.

Now, don't get me wrong: as I said many times before, the broad strokes of the story are set. I know what happens to the various characters, and the beat they go through. But that doesn't mean that there isn't any flexibility in terms of, say, the various indignities that might befall our heroes and heroines.

So let me make this an open thread: if there's anything specific you'd like to see on The Adjusters, any theme you'd like me to hit, any characters you'd like to see put through whatever sexual wringer your twisted mind can conjure up, please let leave a comment below. Do you want to see Calypso or Jenn or Cindy fall prey to a Special? Do you want to see Shawbank taken? Do you want to see more Specials? Fewer Specials?

I can't promise I'll do any of it, of course, but as long as the ideas are not incompatible with the actual story line, there shouldn't be any reason why I can't take requests.

I'll leave you with a nicely twisted story, The Transformation of Betty, by Dom_u_softly: “From sweet housewife to a shared slut in a night.” It's like a wife sharing story, but really it isn't. It's a husband that decided to train his wife as a submissive with the help of a neighbor. If you like your domination with a hint of humiliation where everyone has fun, this is for you.

New Story: The Adjusters #51

(Sorry for the delay, folks. I wish I had a good reason, but frankly, I was just completely exhausted this past week. The one month hiatus will be particularly welcome...)

Here is May's installment of The Adjusters, “The Craven-Wilford Institute, Revisited”, wherein we learn more about the inner workings of the Institute.

As usual, comments welcome.

I'll also remind you that we have a Speculation Thread available for general discussion. (A thread which I read but do not comment on.)


The Adjusters #51 - The Craven-Wilford Institute, Revisited

Erich Altman, director of the Craven-Wilford Institute for Mental Health, was having a bad day.

Which would not have been such a big deal had it not started out so well. He had met the representatives from the funding agencies that were involved in the annual review of the Institute at their hotel for breakfast, and the food had been excellent—the smoked salmon simply out of this world—and the weather had cooperated so that they could sit on the restaurant terrace overlooking the gorge.

The representatives from governmental agencies—the NIH, the DHHS, the NYSDOH—as well as those from private funding organizations—the National Mental Health Foundation and ADCorp —got along famously, all the chief representatives having moved in the same circles for many years.

Review visits such as the one that day were meant to keep the funding agencies abreast of the life of the Institute, and ensure that the public health arm of the Institute satisfied federal and state requirements on the one hand, and also matched the direction that public health policy emphasized year in year out on the other. The private foundations and the National Institute of Health, for their part, wanted to be kept informed of the latest research developments.

Continue reading...

Next month: No update—I'm taking a month-long hiatus from The Adjusters to recharge batteries. Back in two months with the first installment of Book V (Intermezzi).