Ayato

I'll post this here for those who don't follow me on Facebook: I apologise for not updating Husbandwife (and my others) but due to a two to four hour commute each day, depending on schedules, and working full time I've had little time for anything beyond work, sleep and travel. By the sounds of it, this will be changing very shortly and I can get back to writing! Husbandwife will still be my main focus until it is done.

I don't believe any type of telepathy is possible in this world and the alphas don't necessarily have direct access to thyre companions' brains. The G14 marker does seem to enable alphas to act certain ways to bring about certain changes. Our lives actually turn on or off certain parts of our genetic code. Actually, that should be more of a question given your background. I'd heard that our lives can actually trigger certain genetic markers, depending on what's going on around us, environment and such. The idea of breaking has brought that idea to mind to me. It also depends on the companion. Someone said that an alpha couldn't bring out what wasn't already there. Quinn was already a perfectionist, Robin self-harmed and Ezra took that and turned it outward. With that in mind, it should be noted that Alex has never really given in to his abuser, he would submit for the time being but hand him a knife now and he'd just as likely put it between his father's ribs. If he had submitted, he would not be able to function in society at all and would live in pretty much constant fear, especially fear of Blane for having power over him.

Even I'm not certain if there's a living female alpha, though I could very well seeing at least one family surviving into modern times. They would have to hunt their paternal lines carefully, if a male alpha got whiff of a female hi'd tell everyone. Of course, then the female alpha would also have her choice of the males because the males are very interested in bringing the females back. I'm sure there were times when a male and female alpha would share a house for breeding purposes, which is no doubt why alphas place house and play nicely with other alphas without breaking one or the other. And being the alpha who had the female alpha and bred her to produce not only daughters but sons as well? That would be a rich alpha. Recreating the original genetic combination, while it has occurred to me, the mathematical probability to me, from what I've been told of genetics, is slim to none. I realise that people can be born throughout the ages who look spot on like so and so way back when but I've not seen a genetic study of doppelgangers to see how close their genetic material truly is. I think in these cases it's more about wearing the same face, rather than being the same person. As for the "it sort of... smells like a female..." comment from Blane, I've got to point out the fact that Paul said that Alex could very well present as an alpha when he breaks, even to other alphas. Females can have the G14 genetic marker, though it is very rare, and they are never handed over the alphas for breaking but the world is a terrible place. If a female with the G14 genetic marker broke in the right way, the debate then would be, would she smell like an alpha? And if Alex breaks and presents more like an alpha, even to other alphas, does he become a hi or is he simply more special than the average husbandwife?

Alpha males don't need a female alpha to make a male alpha, just to make a female alpha. Female alphas used to enslave males to create more of themselves (daughters) with a very few strong males enslaving females to create daughters to be used to control the regular nobles who existed through history, struggling against the alphas. I know of several ways to create a female alpha. Though most involve genetic alterations or straight out cloning, which is as illegal in this world as it is in the real world. Although cloning would require access to the genetic material of a female and I get the feeling alphas typically go for cremation. Leave nothing for regulars to dance on or your enemies anything to dig up and defile.

O.O Nope, not what I had in mind at all. It happens sometimes, though, I write something and it ends up being like something I've never read before. The alpha females, in my mind, had to be more dominating than the males because in this world females submit to males, it's a patriarchal society, just like ours. A female alpha walking into the room wouldn't send everyone skittering, but a male doing the same thing would. The females had to compensate for this by being absolutely vicious. It still wasn't, the world is moving away because they were female alphas, but instead that it was moving away because it was afraid of the crazy lady. So long as it got the point across, I suppose. Once the female reputation was well built, the daughters born to the female alphas would have been better off. I think this vicious, dominating stereotype was why the female alphas were killed off in the West. If you need to control someone, take away the most dominating and then insert yourself as that person to the survivors. The men just... need a little nudge. Thy've been living without the females, without thyre own male leader, for some time and were confused as to what thy should do with themselves. The culture now allows everyone to survive and this means the more dominating alphas have thyre hands full trying to keep the stupid ones from getting themselves killed because the genetic pool is pretty limited as it is.

I actually know very little about hyenas. I do know that some animals deem alpha by the pheromones they put off. Think... that guy in high school who everyone seemed to just want to sleep with, for no freaking reason at all. Pheromones play a large part in our world and we don't even realise it because all the communication is silent. Do hyenas have alphas even? I should google them.

Paul has husbandwives, I'm getting the feeling these are like strays hi rescues, and possessions. The possessions can be used for anything. Toys are possessions and Paul likes to share hes toys. The toy situation isn't unknown to other alphas (Blane's never been to the club but know what happens) but is probably a little on the rare side. After all, if you premier a toy every other week, no one's going to really sit up and pay attention when it happens and Paul is probably showing off.

given the fact that in this world the genome was "just" cracked, the idea of coding a retro-virus to attack and destroy specific genetic anomalies is a while off even with the alphas involved. Blane was obviously dabbling in doing something of that sort, given the fact that hes miracle drug is actually a retro-virus. Sometimes while trying to create one thing, you discover another.

To Paul that would be a waste of a flesh debt, as hi said to Alex, hi's had many A's by sneaking into the Alpha hotel, having them rough and hard and then leaving, their alpha none the wiser. In Paul's case, hi doesn't need to call in a flesh debt to have someone roughly, hi sleeps around. I get the distinct feeling, though, that Paul doesn't actually have sex with hes husbandwives. Hi sleeps around a lot and probably views hes husbandwives more like cats. They're adorable, hi likes to pet and feed them but doesn't get sexual with them. After all, how could hi please that many husbandwives (let's just say it's a lot) while sleeping with whomever hi pleases who comes to hes city? Paul has a huge reputation for sleeping with other alphas and A's.

I was asked today, by review, what exactly it was that Ezra owes Paul for? Paul cut a deal with Ezra. Under this deal, Ezra owes Paul a flesh debt. In return Paul has actually kept any alpha from being able to request that any of Ezra's flesh debts be paid for by Jaime. Being that Jaime is a heterosexual male, this would be awkward and Ezra doesn't want to share Jaime to start with. Blane has three days to decide whether or not he'd like to take a similar flesh debt with Paul, only with Alex being the subject of the bargain, no one would be able to request Alex fill a flesh debt. Ever. Making him exclusively Blane's, so long as Paul is in power. Flesh debts are: Debts incurred by one alpha to another. Debts can be transferred from one alpha to another, to pay off another kind of debt (though few but brokers do this because brokers don't like other alphas "intruding" and will ruin those who trade one debt for another). The ower (alpha in debt) agrees to pay with flesh a certain fee. Normally this is just a bout of sex but can be the taking of a companion before breaking or even taking of a hand. The lender (the alpha who has given something to the ower) has the right to choose what the flesh debt is, at the time of lending. At the time of repayment the lender has the right to choose who has to pay the flesh debt. Meaning that if Blane has six husbandwives and owes a flesh debt to Paul, Paul has hes choice of six people to pay the debt.

I got a review that is full of questions, though I believe most of them are answered in the story but I'll still post them here, just in case. There are times where I think I've written that into a story buuuut then I got too excited and didn't. "Husbandwives talk like 15 or 16 year olds, why?" I have to say this is because of the G14 marker. The B's, C's and D's are a bit like sheep. A's as they are breaking are a little blurred over, their world is a little narrow as they break and this affects their speech and behaviour. "Can any homosexuals be a husbandwife or just the ones with the R66?" I'd like to clarify this because it hasn't been mentioned in a while in the story, all homosexuals (according to the laws of this particular world) carry the R66 marker. The G14 marker is the one that husbandwives carry. In order to be a husbandwife a male has to carry both the R66 (homosexual) and G14 ('breaking') genetic markers. Women can carry the G14 but it is highly rare and women cannot be wives to alphas due to government sanctions. "Jaime's a husbandwife, so I'm confused about the markers...?" Jaime, it's touched a little on while Blane is working in hes lab before they leave for Paul's City and then again later, is a special candidate. He is a straight man who saw Ezra on television one day and literally walked across the country to serve him. It's an asexual relationship. "If the alphas are gay, how can thy marry a woman and have a baby? What happens to the woman after?" Alphas do not marry thyre breeders. The women are volunteers on a government database, normally those who are criminals and have been given the option of breeding an alpha or going to jail. After the breeding the woman is actually free to go but for most the maternal instinct kicks in and she remains behind, raising the child until her death. She's well cared for, better cared for than the child often times. Blane's mother is not around because she died of cancer when hi was young.

Paul's father is from the Western nation, like all alphas (that I know of) hi's adapted the accent from hes time as top-dog as well as some learning abroad. It's my understanding hes father wanted him to learn about the world... and possibly to keep Paul out of the hands of other alphas.

A place to discuss the original m/m work called HusbandWife.

If you aren't crazy, you're doing it wrong! Or is that saying, if you aren't having fun, you're doing it wrong? My friends are under the belief that all authors are crazy but that stems from being beside me when I get the o.O look on my face at a nice, quiet dinner and a dark scene just popped into my head. Personally, I find that those scenes are easier to write when I'm not in a dark mood or when I'm feeling good about life. That way, I can walk away feeling accomplished but not being absolutely downtrodden. Though the opposite is not true, if I'm in a depressed sort of mood, I can't write comedy.

Just checking, though I'm fairly certain I already know the answer. It's not Hellian, that you're looking for, right?

My stories tend to lack females because I am terrible, utterly terrible, at writing females. They turn into air headed morons and I end up wanting to shoot them in the face. I do write some females but not a lot and it's something that I'm working on because even my heterosexual stories have trouble with females. In a few the female ended up the antagonist on purpose, one or two just sort of happened. The older stories of mine have either no women at all or have women who are snotty, arrogant little brats and that really reflected the females I knew in real life. Only knew one who wasn't holier-than-thou-art. As I've aged I've met more people of all different types and I like to think I've improved on that whole bit. I've never had anyone complain about my having women in a story unless they're complaining that the antagonist, who is a woman, is such a horrible woman. Which is the point of her being the way she is.

As a survivor of abuse talking about spanking makes me shudder. Whenever asked if spanking is abuse, that is what I automatically say. Yup, it is. Of course that's accompanied by me skittering away from the speaker and wondering if they're going to smack me... But when I take the time to think about it, the view of the parents who have responded is sound. Used sparingly and properly a spank can be discipline. On the other hand. Someone made comment that it might make a child go out onto the playground or future relationships and do the same thing. This is true, but the opposite is also true. My older brother is on the verge of becoming abusive, he has been like that his entire life. My younger brother will not fight or defend himself physically, though he gives off the tough guy attitude. Myself... I'm harmless until you hit me and then you'd best start running or make sure I don't get back up. When struck for the purpose of hurting me or "teaching" me, I become violent and will attack the abuser. These roles that we've taken on are reflective of the treatment to spanking that we received from our father. My older brother, who suffered moderate physical abuse, sees it as a way to empower himself. My younger brother, who was severely abused, never sees it as an option. Myself. Well I can't actually make a claim on how physically abused I was but I don't see shoving other people around as empowering but that also goes towards other people, I'm not going to allow someone else to empower themselves by hurting me. Three children from the same house and we all had different reactions to the abuse aspect of spanking. I've read reports and the like on abuse but it almost seems like you only hear about the ones who snap, or the ones who go on to be abusers. You don't hear about the walking time bombs and the quiet ones who keep to themselves because they aren't out there, hopping up and down saying "look at me, I'm from a broken home!" Well... most of the time.

I include "violence" tags because some of my plots actually have the characters as in a violent world. To show how the world works, I include violent scenes but most of the time, that's the way story goes. Some tags I include just to make certain that my bases are all covered. As I think someone pointed out, not everything about the world is fluffy and happy. Sometimes life sucks and things explode and suddenly there's bloody pieces everywhere. There are those who write violence during sex scenes, I'm not much for touching those. I mentioned a rape once and felt sick for days and still feel sick every time I think about it. The only thing that saved even that mentioning from breaking me was the fact that the rapist met a quick and bloody end.

This makes me feel awkward. I sign off all of my chapters with "Read, Review and Enjoy" but it is purely a signature and isn't so much begging for reviews. Maybe it was when I started posting that, it was a really long time ago in my world. Now, however, it's just how I sign things. In reality it tends to come down to, I dun care. If I get reviews or not, it is something that I've written. I've had stories "go poorly" (ie, get few hits, reviews and ratings) and I've continued on with them despite the fewer than "average" (for me) of anything in particular. My favourite stories tend to be the ones that do poorly, oddly enough. That all being said. I still do a little dance every time I get a review.

This is a feature that I somewhat miss. When I hit 1000 reviews I stopped receiving emails telling me about the reviews so I started looking to the counter to tell me when I received a new review. I think now (that I've got it fixed to send me emails again) I'd just like to see it for bragging worth (with friends) and to inflate my own ego.

As an originals writer it actually infuriates me when I hear that people have "ctrl+c" my work to keep their own personal copies. It's upsetting and unsettling for there to be copies of my work floating around when the only place that I've put them is here on AFF. It is one thing if I deliver a PDF copy to someone and say that they can hand it out if they please, it's quite another if someone takes what I've spent so long writing and keeps it on their computer where anyone could find it. The stories are on AFF, why is that not enough? I might want to distribute on a larger scale but if it came to that, what publisher would pick up a story that others have made copies off? As for the artist cycle, meh, I don't believe in that. I create and if you insist that I need to share, I do share. I share on AFF and I only share on AFF for a reason. I don't write my stories so someone can copy them and keep a file of their own. Come to the site, participate in the community and yeah, hit up my story every time you want to read it so that I know that it is being read and enjoyed. I might need to share my work but my ego still needs to be fed and it mainly sustains on hits. Hits which I cannot get if everyone copies the stories and keeps them on a hard drive. It is encouraging to see that it's in the TOS itself and if I catch wind of someone or find the folk who had said they caught a copy for themselves, I will be reporting them. These are my works and the payment methods that are required are a bit unconventional but they are still cheaper than paying actual money.

That is exactly how my author's panel looks like! By clicking the user name (right beside the 'Welcome,'), I can get around it and I don't mind going around it and taking the extra steps. But I just thought I'd say that it's not just SGS who has this problem.

I wrote Stray and was wondering if I had become that unoriginal but Soul Bound was the inspiration for Stray, which is why they kind of mirror one another.

Uhm awkward. I've only seen one other story, personally, that deals with Sidhe/faeries but it didn't follow that premise so I'm going to ask if you've read Soul Bound ? It was sort of the inspiration for the opening scene for Stray...

Most do! Names I see that people seem to like are Twistedhilarity (twistedhilary? I can never seem to recall) dextrousleftie, mahsa, Azela and kiix. Those are just the ones that I recall off the top of my head.