Chapter Text
I had never seen the Emperor’s dressing room before. Like all his rooms, almost every surface was mirrored. A thousand giant Emperors loomed over my small, scantily clad form. He was already dressed, wearing a bright red robe with a high collar over his square shoulder pads, even brighter red clothing broken up with black embroidery and his tight, tall, black boots making his already large frame even more imposing with their heels. His hair was freshly trimmed, the reddish blond curls combed out to straightness.
I was also dressed, wearing practically nothing. A sheer skirt tinted light purple that showed off the lavender thong he squeezed me into, a matching lavender bikini top that dug painfully into my breasts. Everything complimenting my summer-thin blue fur. A thick, black collar choked me to remind me of my place. Whenever the Emperor dressed me up, I felt particularly like the animal he always compared me to; a rabbit dressed up by its owner to be shown as a pet.
I felt more naked than if I had been wearing nothing. A bot was replacing the many earrings that weighed down my lop ears with heavy gold, every other earring linked together with a small, heavy chain. My ears drooped with discomfort, and I slouched my shoulders to hide myself. The bot replacing the earrings had no regard for my comfort and while I usually found any touch to my ears to be erotic, I was finding the fitting painful and invasive.
Despite my shame, I was excited to go to dinner with the Emperor. He had never invited me to dine with him in all my years as his slave. He hadn’t told me anything about who we’d be dining with or how to behave. But he had gifted me with nicer earrings for the occasion and as gaudy as I found them, the gesture touched the part of me that loved him, despite the rest of me that wished for nothing more than to run away and never see him again.
Another bot thrust something at my face, the screen of its face that usually mimicked human emotion shut off and blank. It reflected back my startled face. Just another mirror. It was a shot glass full of pink liquid.
“Wanna know what it is?” the Emperor said. He approached me and I took the shot glass. Plain, plastic. Like at the dentist. “Go on, guess.”
I sniffed the liquid. It smelled… pink. Balmy sweet and sugary. I had no idea what it could be other than, “Poison?”
With my immortality, the Emperor was always killing me in humiliating and unceremonious ways. To have him make me sick and collapse at a dinner, only to come gasping back to life a moment later would be a memorable party trick. Look what my toy can do! I bet you don’t have one like this.
The Emperor burst out laughing. “Why would I kill you in your nice clothes before this big dinner? You know you shit yourself when you die sometimes. Come on, be creative.”
I was at a loss. “Is it some kind of… hallucinogen?” Maybe he meant to embarrass me by giving me a bad trip on some alien cocktail and making me think I was somewhere else, with someone else, manipulating me into acting as deranged as he pleased for him and his friends to laugh at.
The Emperor frowned dramatically and went back to preening in the mirror, obviously annoyed with me. “Just drink it, you’re way off.”
How could expect me to play this game without a hint? I felt frustrated.
Obediently, I brought the shot glass to my lips. I hesitated, but before the Emperor could open his mouth to yell at me again, I swallowed what was inside of it.
It was slightly carbonated and fizzed going down. The taste was offensive, as syrupy and candy-like as it smelled. It was probably so sweet to mask the horrible bitter aftertaste that bumped up against my gag reflex and made me nauseous.
Immediately, I felt hot and somewhat itchy, my skin becoming sensitive to the temperature controlled, filtered air of the Emperor’s spaceship. I knew it was some kind of drug, but I had to wait to see the true effects.
But I also felt… happy. Excitement added to the nausea in my stomach. Butterflies danced inside of me.
“Good little bunny,” the Emperor cooed.
My eyes lit up at the praise, and I felt my mouth smile, responding to emotions I didn’t know I could feel anymore. I felt like I was glowing with love, radiation all directed at the Emperor.
“Give that about fifteen minutes, cutie, then we’ll really see you shine.” He pinched my cheek condescendingly and the touch traveled down my body, straight to my groin. I didn’t want to go to dinner anymore. I wanted him to take me right there.
“But what is it?” I asked, feeling bold in my elation.
“You’ll see,” he said with a wink. He turned to the bot. “Bring us all a round of shots in an hour and a half, everyone else gets tequila and Helena gets another dose.”
“Yes, Sir,” the bot said obediently and left.
I shrunk back at the sound of my birthname. I had long since given up on asserting my name and gender to the Emperor. It was bad enough that he insisted on putting me in such revealing, feminine clothing, but then he reminded me again and again that in the same way my body was not my own, my name was not my own either.
The pink stuff I had drank bubbled inside of me and I found the misery a little silly. The Emperor was giving me a big gift by letting me dine with him tonight. I supposed I could let it slide for now.
“Oh, look at you!” the Emperor said, turning to me. He played with my piercings, harassing the chains so they jingled together. I moaned at the feeling of the big piercings swinging in my ears. “You ready, sweetheart? I think you’re really going to like this. Ugh, I want to tell you, but it has to be a surprise. Okay, guess one more time and if you get it right, I’ll let you put a shirt on.”
“Um,” I said dumbly.
I couldn’t think past all the cotton in my head. I tried to think about the sort of people the Emperor complained about having dinner with but I couldn’t imagine who it would be that was so lowly I was allowed to be there too. I giggled at my own stupidity, then gasped, my hand flying to my mouth with surprise.
“What was that noise?” I breathed.
“A laugh?” the Emperor said. “I don’t know, I’ve never heard you do that before.” He mimicked the noise like a mockingbird and I giggled again.
The Emperor dropped my ears and shook his hands out excitedly. “Fuck it, I’ll just tell you. We’re having dinner with Ambrose and Lorraine Serva. And one of your brothers, uh, fuck. What was his name?”
The smile drooped off my face. As the Emperor talked himself through remembering the name, chattering aimlessly, all I heard was my heartbeat.
He couldn’t be serious. My parents? One of my brothers? What if it was one of the bad ones? What are my parents going to think seeing me dressed like this?
Then the Emperor started to laugh at me. I snapped out of it and started to laugh with him because, right, he was joking. And it was such a funny joke. I could only imagine the look of horror on my face. I looked in one of the mirrors and saw myself laughing instead, my face warped into youthful smile lines and glimmering white teeth.
“You think I’m kidding?” he said. “They’re in there right now. Waiting to meet us.” One last grope, cupping my breast in his warm, inviting hand. “You’re my wife tonight, aren’t you special? Why don’t you just follow me and I’ll show you. We’ll see you laugh then. How you feeling?”
I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to answer, wracked with agonizing hiccups of noise.
The Emperor frowned, his crow’s feet crinkling around his blue eyes. “Pull yourself together, God. It’s not that funny. Come on, let’s start the procession.”