Furniture

In every home of the palatial tower in Eos that housed the Tanagura elite lived the youth called furniture. **Lived** wasn't even an appropriate word. With hair cropped short, and wearing uniforms that emphasized the lean lines of their bodies, they were merely luxury items furnished like organic household appliances. (V3 p114)

## **Function**

   In every room of the palatial tower in Eos that housed the Tanagura Elite lived the youth called Furniture. "Lived" wasn't even an appropriate word. With hair cropped short, and wearing uniforms that emphasized the lean lines of their bodies, they were merely luxury items furnished like organic household appliances. (V3 p114)

Furniture weren't [in Tanagura] for their own enjoyment. They were chosen for physiques that went well with the installed decor, and sufficient intelligence so they could interface with the latest electronic equipment. (V3 p114)

Furniture was a household appliance, a consumable good; there was no need to treat furniture like people. And yet in Eos, automated to the hilt with state-of-the-art technology, without the furniture there to care for them, the pets would starve to death while sleeping in rags. Nobody ever asked or wondered why. (V3 p16)

Babysitting the pets every day of their lives was a human species even lower than the pets; the 'furniture'. (V3 p16)

Every activity, from bathing to defecation, was entrusted to the furniture without the slightest hesitation or embarrassment. It was naturally left to the furniture to do the straightening up afterward. (V3 p24)

## **Furniture and Pets, Penalties**

The owners [of pets] knew a lot more about what their pets were up to than they ever let on. But no owner wished proof of his relaxed training skills to be made public, and that was where the duty of the furniture lay. Although a pet was taught to be obedient to its master, the furniture had no choice. (V3 p25)

*"In Eos, furniture is a disposable good. We're subjected to a pet's whims and fits of violence -- isn't that why furniture suffer such short lifespans?"* (V3 p71)

see Daryl Incident

### **Intimacy Taboos**

Sexual contact between pets and furniture was generally prohibitted, and an owner would never go so far as to openly condone such behavior, but the great majority of pets realized that as long as they kept it to themselves, nobody would object. And if an owner happened to catch sight of such activities, the pets had no dubts that the disposable furniture would be the ones to catch hell for it. (V3 p25)

see Pets: Secret Affairs for more

In Eos, it was said -- in what passed for vulgar humor -- that peeling back the foreskin of the virginal pet and instructing him in the ways of masturbation was the job of the furniture. (V6 p103)

see Pets: Circumcision for more

Invitations to breed were common, so Miguel never felt sexual frustration. If he ever did at home, Simon was there to service him with his mouth in secret. Not that it ever felt good. It never did. Far better to turn a female pet inside out. Much more satisfying. (V7 p87)

## **Rank and** **Floor Leaders**

*"Tomass is the floor leader of the Apex Level."* (V7 p54)

To be floor leader of Apex Level was to reign over all furniture in Eos. To discuss things with Tomass was to reach the ears of Aisha. (V7 p54)

*"This furniture belonging to [the Paradita pet Miguel's] Onyx went to its floor leader and eventually the discussion went to Tomass [Aisha's furniture]."* (V7 p53)

## **Secret** **Origins**

*"Did you know that all the furniture in Eos are slum mongrels, Riki?"* (V3 p115)

That one fact must never be revealed. If it became known in Eos, the social order would break down. If they knew that the food they depended on was being delivered by the lowest dregs of society, the objects of their scorn, pets would panic. (V6 p85-6)

Not even other Furniture are aware that all of them are slum mongrels. They keep the secret, ashamed and terrified of the truth of their origins exposing them to ridicule, or worse. (As seen with the Simon Incident.)

### **Furniture and Guardian**

    The furniture in Eos was all supplied by Guardian, a secret known by only a handful of the elites. (V3 p68, V7 p77-79, 83-87)

see Guardian: Truths

Katze's confession: (V3 p114)

## **Selection Process**

*"The tenth at three o'clock. Deliver them to the regular place."* (V4 p111)

The negotiations were not carried out remotely or through avatars, but in person, with Katze going to Guardian. Just like the rep before him. (V4 p112)

Katze wordlessly flipped through the file folder, carefully checking out the head shots and accompanying notes. Physical characteristics were hardly mentioned -- the notes more often than not focused on intelligence, personality, psychological judgement, and the like. Instead of describing a single individual, this was more the detailed evaluation of a representative sample. He selected a number of files from the folder and spread them out on the table. The final cut for the next season's delivery of furniture to Eos. (V4 p110)

If [Katze had] known that having a good head on his shoulders, that being a reasonable and mannered child was the number one qualification for furniture, he would have acted the exact opposite. (V4 p121)

### **Castration**

To be sure there was no trouble from the contact between furniture and pets, furniture was castrated as a matter of course. (V3 p114)

Furniture started out as thirteen year old boys, castrated and installed in an apartment in Eos. (V6 p84)

*"My first night in Tanagura, we were brought to a medical center and finally learned what being furniture really entailed. It was a shock. I completely blanked out."* (V3 p119)

The reality of being made furniture was brought home when that recently awakened part of their bodies was removed and they ceased to be men. None of them had done anything more with [their penis] up to that point than jerk off, so the true meaning...of pleasure was still a mystery. So its absence, while missed, did not present itself as an insurmountable tragedy. (V4 p102)

*"A piece of castrated furniture is neither male nor female,"* Katze had told him, *"but a living thing unfinished and incomplete. In truth, coming to grips with that reality took a good deal of time. When human beings lose something they should have, their souls tip out of balance as well. But the pets and their owners don't bother to take much notice of that."* (V6 p84)

To live in close proximity to the sort of blatant carnality that an Eos pet flaunted constantly and to not feel anything at all—that was furniture. (V8 p57-8)

Katze did not have the means to feel pleasure in a physical sense; nanosurgery saw to it the organs required were removed down to the last nerve clusters, the last pleasure receptors. As such, Katze was incapable of feeling even warmth, let alone love. (V8 p58)

see Guardian: Population Control

### **New Names**

Many pets didn't even know the name of their own furniture. (V7 p70)

*"If you become furniture in Eos, are you assigned a new name?... I'm asking if these are just furniture names.... The name I knew him as is Vince. Not Simon. Vince. During our Guardian days he was one year younger than me in the same block."* (V7 p71)

see Mongrels

see Simon Incident: Vince for more