A chandelier of flesh

After her bath Ruby made herself a little food. Just a small portion of nostalgic simplicity in eggy-bread, rather than the hideously over-engineered restaurant food she had to eat most of the time. Dressed in a loose robe of the finest, flowing silk she popped a cherry tomato or two in her sensuous mouth and enjoyed the squish. The first glimmers of dawn were sidling in through her wide windows. She watched the light glint off the gently swinging shapes hanging in her lower lounge, casting strange shadows across the room.

The twins were a pair of Taiwanese acrobats and contortionists who had first been hired to be part of one of her grand world tour performances. Ms Pandora had been entranced by the way they felt more comfortable being bound, suspended and tangled up in each other… even while sleeping. She had just had to have them as decorations. Had started researching and ordering all manner of imaginative circus and bondage equipment to be installed in her ceilings, even before they had said yes. The pair had little reason to say no after all… they already spoke english. Ruby's show had been the most lucrative employment they'd ever had up to that point and she happily paid for their flights home whenever they wished. Occasionally being asked to play the role of a light fitting at a fancy party or two hardly seemed an unfair trade. They liked watching all the funny rich people wander around gawking anyway.

Sometimes one or two of the guests would take liberties with these human sculptures, while they were tied and twisted into inescapable positions. This seemed to only come as some surprise to the symmetrical pair of olive-skinned beauties, not a particular concern. Half the world away the idea of consensual penetration wasn't even considered… but a strict class system and belief in doing one thing at a time was ingrained. Common street performers, as they had once been, were fully expected to be stolen once in a while and used by the local triads. Yet, they were usually returned by morning. Their main role was to act as advertisements for brothels catering to a higher quality of customer with a higher quality of courtesans. Strapped to the front of such establishments in alluring positions and bedecked in neon glowsticks. For a man of fine breeding to have sex with what was effectively a signpost… was pretty much unthinkable.

So for the twins to be laughingly invaded by these drunk old men in several thousand-dollar suits seemed just a strange honor to them. Ruby would watch it all unfold from across a glass and the room. A sly smile playing across her lips at the squelching clash of cultures she got to witness. She understood the girl's considerations perfectly… but had never explained the disparities with her society to them. She preferred to just watch… and smile. As both parties felt they were taking something intangible from the other.

After walking past and giving one splayed leg a gentle push… so that the snoring, dangling twosome were set spinning in the opposite direction; Ruby moved on toward a still-lit doorway. Ben was still up and scribbling, of course. She brought the young man a second plate of eggy goodness and gave him a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek.

He was one of her first and oldest little pets. Back from a period when every female celebrity had just had to adopt a young gay man into her little entourage: to show fashionable solidarity. Ben had won a song-writing competition to get to 'meet' the illustrious Ms. Pandora. Only instead of wanting to immediately jump her onto her back the young man had surprised her by just wanting to talk and talk. It would seem she had become something of an idol and symbol of freedom for him, growing up in a homophobic household where 'God's seed was only to go where it was supposed to!'. Yet the songs he wrote about his own lurid fascination with cocks and spunk were unarguably, beautifully sordid. Ruby had hired him as a live-in writer immediately.

To this day he was her most loyal and responsible adoptee, basically acting as den-mother while she was away from home. Always chasing after the younger pets, trying to clean up after them. He even refused to accept credit for any of the songs he wrote for her, though she kept a steady and generous salary pouring into a bank account in his name. Occasionally he'd have boyfriends round and… as ever, the mistress of the house would like to watch, but he was far too precious for Ruby to risk playing any of her extra games with. The young men in question were also always too amazed by their lover's closeness to a legitimate celebrity goddess to even think of demanding privacy.