My Lamia 2/2/16

Monster Mates: My Lamia

  A lavish office, a man in his mid twenties is lead in my a much older well dressed buisinessman.
  "So far," says the buisinessman, "we have covered the basics the job will entail, however,"
  He clicks a button revealing a screen that displays an incredible creature resting in a tree. The upper body is that of a pale woman with long black hair, except with red and golden scales down her sides. There is no waist to speak of save for a slight roundedness and a lump where a butt would be as the lower body is a long red and golden snake body that disappears around the tree trunk. It sleeps, its ample busom pressed against the tree limb.
  "A double-M," whispers the man.
  "Indeed," says the buisinessman as he turns and looks directly in the man's eyes, "I have seen that look before. Before you ask, I will get the basics out of the way first from what past applicants have said after getting this far. So many of you young people seem to think this is slavery or some weird fetish; this thing is not human, looks wise they said the law requires it be fifty percent or less human in apperance."
  He shrugs his shoulders before continuing, "This is a bio-android, regardless of what the media may try to spin, a thing made from protein, it isn't even remotely human or even animal. It is a work of art, living art...very expensive living art. A thing that eats, sleeps, breathes, it is a creature made to be watched, for lack of a better term. The way the media acts you'd think people could just walk into a pet store and find these on display...they are one hundred percent custom made."
   "To be honest sir," says the man as the buisinessman eyes him coldly, "I was just surprised...I've seen a few of them in real life...but nothing like this."
   "The Lamia," says the Buisnessman, "I also own a Naga as well. They are my prized pets, kept safely in their large enclosure. I trust all the ones you've seen were much smaller. These are the most expensive types. Despite apperances, they are dangerous, predatory even. Definetly not safe to have around your house. A luxury aesthetic and nothing more."
  The man thinks to himself, "he sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than me."
  "You," continues the buisinessman, "would be joining a team that one day a month would be releasing a new prey item into the enclosures as well as cleaning them while...my pets are distracted into different enclosures."
   "How...big is the enclosure sir?" asks the man
   The buisinessman smiles, "good, all buisiness. There are three enclosures, each one is roughly two square miles. I use drones to observe them and their prey...they like to hunt. Each is connected via locking gates. The team is fairly large and only one day a month, alternating between enclosures each month, so the same one once every three months...otherwise the smell bothers them. You will have hover platforms and tools to clean up any carcasses, detritus, shedded skin, and such. I did try to make a self sustaining bio-sphere with these two as the alpha predators; but you can only do so much with an indoor enclosure of these sizes I am told."
   "Three enclosures, each two square miles roughly," thinks the man, "that would be six square miles roughly. I've heard of people going all out for their pets, but..."
   "I am currently having a fourth enclosure made," says the buisinessman, "which is more where you'll be working for the time being with that team. Afterall your resume says you were with a construction firm for a few years...and...I prefer not to hire construction firms directly for the landscaping work, and only want people who can appreciate what they are building for."
  "Of...course sir," says the man needing work, yet weirded out by the un-neccissary lengths this guy is going to for something that doesn't make sense to the man, "I have no objections, she's lovely."
   "It," says the buisinessman turning to the monitor, "make no mistake my boy," his tone turns somber and his eyes narrow, "it...is an it not a she."


    ******

    It has been months and the man finds himself transfered to another department in the same compound. The man leading him through this odd instalation that could just as easily be a farm looks like the old buisinessman only much younger, a man introduced to him by first name oddly, as Tod.
   "Okay, Robert was it," says Tod as they stop before a very odd pen designed to look like a crystal floor with a pool and soft light, the creatures within are bizare. About the size of a man or a pig they look like a cross between a Tardigrade and a human tongue, small ovoid thing in front that is likely its head only with no visible eyes or mouth, little paddle like lump feet that look exactly like its head, about ten of these, and a fat tail like part in back that is held off the ground save for the very end.
   "As you know, this is the feed storage for my the old coots pets, I see here,"
  He looks at an electronic board in his hand, "you were transfered over from construction on enclosure four, finished ahead of schedule. Heh, must have been easy, after all the old man did say it was going to basically be a giant pool with islands for those two to share when he decides to open all the enclosures at once together...going to make cleaning a real pain...more so than feeding."
   "Okay Robert," says Tod, "What I am showing you today is no small task, in fact looks like the old man has taken a liking to you to bring you this far. Here is where we keep, pamper, and and prepare the food for those two double-m's. Feeding them isn't easy....they prefer live prey, just like the snakes they are moddled after...or tigers."
   "Sorry sir," says Robert, "I take it you don't like doing this?"
  "Huh?" says Tod, "Oh sorry, I forgot, the old man who hired you is my father. He's eccentric, and to be honest I think losing his mind as he gets older. I know other people who have Lamia and other double-m's and don't go anywhere near as insane with the set-up...this costs a fortune."
   He points to the weird animals behind them, "Do you know what those are Robert?"
  "No...sir," says Robert.
  "Ever had Iropa Steak?"
  "That...." says Robert dumb-founded, "is what it is? This animal?"
  "Not really an animal," says Tod, "well...not technically, its an alien found on...in...Iropa; Living Tongues. Our company farms them, breeds them. Very expensive, but edible and very delicious especially when prepared right. But....they don't breed, even artificially, as quickly as say cows or pigs, making them very expensive. I could get over seven thousand a head for each of the very healthy specimens in this pen, and much more for the breeders we have stashed here. Its a treat for those snakes."
  He turns starts up a machine, the sound of which seems to terrify...as best the term can be described the Living Tongues, "Feeding the Lamia and the Naga is tricky, to be honest with this set up I think they went feral...somehow. I'm not a scientist I'm a buisinessman so don't ask me how that happened. One of the caretakers tried to explain it to me, form to function, neural paths, instinct isn't the same as programming or something, not sure. I just know it has made feeding them very difficult. You'll notice you're the only one down here, and there are no obvious exits or entrances to these pens."
   "Yeah," says Robert, "how..."
   "A transporter," says Tod.
  Roberts eyes open wide.
  "Good," says Tod scowling as he turns on some monitors, "you see what I mean by expensive set up. We originally had normal feeding gates like a zoo...but the Lamia and...." his eyes narrow, "the Naga especially...started to attack the gates, even before the food was brought in...terrified the handlers. We then tried to do a special passages thing...it was expensive to try and set those up. We had to make multiple lifts for the animals, something that could hold them and release them and not get stuck in the enclosures...or give these things a way out. Had to try and randomize the lifts, mostly away...but they started to learn the sound...and...track it moving under them. Predators....like I said."
   He smiles a moment and *sighs*, "Okay and last on the history part of this orientation is the drones. Going through the roof, making a passage through the lighting and ventilation systems....and....they broke every single drone before it could land and drop off the prey...and well...look around, imagine the size and cost of a drone that can safely lift and release these animals."
  Robert looks around again, "Rabbits, small pigs, cats, various rodents, most are small animals...the cats part is disturbing for Robert, glad there are no dogs or he really would quit, but the sheep, small deer, and the Living Tongues are all big."
   "Every single drone," says Tod, "as insane as it sounds the impractical for shipping because of the energy cost transporter system is actually more cost effective in the long run for feeding these things."
   "I don't get it," says Robert, "they....arn't double-m's just pretty much meat-robots? How are they dangerous?"
   "Because they arn't..." says Tod, "like I said I have no idea, but apparently, yes they did go feral, and they are dangerous...the military has even begun using them..."
   Robert eyes Tod, he's never heard of that.
   "Probably shouldn't have told you that," says Tod, "but that cat will be out of the bag sooner or later. Guess they don't want it hurting their fetish profits on the smaller less...insane ones. Basically think of this way, the old man is keeping large predators around as pets. His own private zoo. But make no mistake they are very dangerous, especially because they are so disarming and can easily make you forget that at the end of the day they are large predators."
   "Disarming?" asks Robert.
  Tod brings up the tracking monitor for the Lamia, "This one, I don't mind as much as the Naga...I bet my father didn't show you the Naga did he?"
  "Arn't they the same thing?" asks Robert.
  "No," says Tod, "Naga are more expensive, bigger...meaner...less human like. Think of the Lamia as a tiger...the Naga...would be an Orca. In fact....my father is the only one outside of the military that I know of who has a Naga...its definetly not in the catalogue."
   Tod points to the monitor, "as for your question, I'll answer it this way, look at her lying there by the pool. What do you see?"
   Robert looks at the monitor, "I see what looks like a mutant woman I guess, a monster-girl splashing around in...."
  Tod puts his palm on the monitor covering the Lamia's human side, "Now what do you see..."
  Robert looks at it, looks at the rocks around the tail, watching it making rather large waves just by moving...it takes him a moment and he almost goes pale, "A....humongeous snake...."
  "Exactly," says Tod, "that is almost all muscle, she could crush you to death in an instant. She can move herself at incredible speeds through the enclosures, I've seen her rip a tree out of the ground when she was upset just by twisting on it...and throw it with her tail. I won't tell you the cost of just getting that thing, but he's had it for years."
  Robert notices that Tod changes between "she" and "it" while talking about the Lamia, and his tone shifts oddly.
  "Any ways," says Tod with a *sigh*, "demonstrations are better than explinations. This isn't a guarantee...and I will explain to my father later that I did as part of your orientation for safety reasons...not a lie trust me. But he prefers the prey be released in different spots and there be a mix of them in there...something about wanting a natural feeling environment...and letting them hunt."
  Robert remembers the man who hired him saying something like that before.
  The transporter targets and beams away one of the Living Tongues, and on the monitor Robert can see it appear in a clearing near the pool. Tod manipulates the controls on the camera, a stealth drone, small, designed to watch the Lamia in her enclosure. Following her as she waves her head from side to side, her body looking like it is practically dancing, her long forked tongue flicking out as she stays low to the ground and moves silently from the pool.
  "Good," says Tod coldly, "watch."
  Robert watches as the Lamia strikes in a flash, smashing her tail down on the Living Tongue's squishy body, making it split open in a few spots, it makes no sound by twitches as the Lamia wraps her tail around it and lifts it. He watches in horror as despite the human like head the mouth opens up insanely wide while swallowing the twitching alien whole. The throat expands little, more crushing down on the Living Tongue, its juices streaming out the side of the Lamia's mouth, causing her to stop occassionally and suck them in with a sickening sound around the things body. Her ribs and breasts pull apart slightly as she pulls the whole thing down. The abdomen doesn't swell as much as Robert would have imagined, and watches as the Lamia waves back and forth a little, her hands carressing the sides of her body and across her stomach, her face in a moment of bliss and she pushes her prey further down and compresses with her muscles, clearly crushing it to pulp inside her. In mere moments no sign she even swallowed anything.
   "Unlike a real snake," says Tod, "her body doesn't expand out. They can't eat anything that much bigger than themselves. Their metabolism is also higher, so one meal of about that size a month will do. Why your orientation was timed this way, I wanted to make sure anyone taking this job saw this....also as you can imagine that was an expensive meal. Due to their habitat requirements...we don't put the Living Tongues in there very often, its a very expensive waste if they die before being eaten."
   Robert would laugh outloud if he didn't think he'd get in trouble for it, all this drama over what to him was just a very big and expensive version of someone feeding a rat to a snake and whining about their dad spending so much money on his pet and feeding it expensive food. Granted this was like giving the dog a t-bone steak. Something does catch his eye as he follows Tod out of pen area, the other Living Tongues have their head like parts aimed towards the monitor and are huddled together and shivering.
  Robert thinks as he walks away, "Could they...see and hear that?...okay that's kind of messed up."

      *****