While the sun was getting close to the horizon, Katherine and Ruby got out of the red sport car of the archprincess, and walked towards a white, one-story house. Over the front door, a sign said “contact centre”. The girl had butterflies in her stomach as they walked in.

They entered a hallway that had blue fitted carpet, a coffee machine and a fern on one end, and just two doors on the inner side – one was the toilet, the other the office. Ruby knocked on the latter.

“Just a moment!” came a high-pitched female voice from inside.

The archprincess tidied her skirt and glanced at the girl next to her. “So as I said, you have fifteen minutes, Katherine. Use that time as you wish.”

“I will.”

After about half a minute, the door finally opened, and a white-haired woman greeted them. She had a somewhat wide set of purplish-blue eyes, and she wore her bleached hair in a long ponytail.

“Alyssa. How are you doing?” the archprincess asked. Kate noticed a pitch of awkwardness in her voice.

“Hi, Ruby! I'm just happy to be of use, as usual.”

“Right... come, Katherine!”

The office was fairly dark, as the windows were shuttered, and only a moody table lamp was switched on. The room smelled like cigarettes, and something else too... was it weed? (Kate herself hasn't smoked weed before, but she saw Jay and the boys do so a few times.) The furniture consisted of a desk with a computer, a bunch of metal drawers behind it, and on the other side of the place, a sofa. Above it, a sexy calendar was hung up on the wall, with the image of a half-naked man seductively looking over his shoulder at the viewer. Kate glanced at it for a second, then quickly turned her head, but she noticed that this Alyssa woman caught her motion, and she winked at her. The girl slightly blushed and pretended that nothing happened. Meanwhile, Ruby walked to the windows.

“I see you still like to dwell in darkness. Watching screens like this is bad for your eyes,” she stated. ”Let's get some light in here!”

Even though the sun was setting, opening the shutters still made a difference.

“The archprincess is worrying for me, how nice of her!” Alyssa smiled.

Ignoring the comment, Ruby turned towards the girl. “Katherine, before we proceed, I need to tell you that this is not exactly... official. So if you meet anyone else, don't tell them about this, okay?”

The girl was surprised, after all Ruby was supposed to be the highest ranking person of this city, and she herself made this appointment possible for her. So why was it not official? But what mattered was that she was given the opportunity, so Kate nodded.

“Of course, the same goes for you, Alyssa,” added the archprincess.

“Oh, you know that I'm good at keeping dirty little secrets,” the white-haired woman said suggestively.

“I suppose. You have plenty of your own, after all...”

“And look how useful that turned out be! If nothing else, I can still be your partner in crime when needed.”

“Well... I do thank you for doing this for us. Let's get to it then!”

The girl was seated in front of the computer. Both of the other women insisted to put the call on speaker – they wanted to witness their interaction. Kate wished she could have some privacy with her boyfriend, but she didn't feel like arguing right now, so she reluctantly agreed. Alyssa started the call, then she leaned back on the sofa, lighting a joint. Ruby sat on the edge of the desk next to Katherine, tapping her fingers on the wooden surface. The call was soon answered.

“Hello?”

“Jay, is that you?”

“... Kate? Yes, it's me.”

A few seconds of silence.

“How are y...” they both spoke at the same time, then they got quiet simultaneously as well.

Kate cleared her throat. “I'm doing okay, they are pretty nice to me up here, overall.”

“How is the upper city?”

“It's fine. Actually, it's kind of cool, it's quite a colorful place. I wish you could be up here with me too.” Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw Ruby flinching and grimacing at the idea. She tried her best to ignore her. “But how about over there? Isn't the lower city depressing?”

“It's... all right.”

“Are you lonely?”

“I... I made some friends.”

“Really? Are men nice to you?”

“The ones I met are pretty chill.”

The girl noticed that her boyfriend sounded kind of off. Perhaps it was nervousness? She herself was nervous too. It didn't help that two grown women were hanging on their every word...

“We can do this, Jay!” Kate said. “By the way, you don't even have to work either, right?”

“Yea. I don't have to.”

“Just occupy yourself with something! I'll try to do the same. I'm sure that it will all be over soon.”

“Yes. I really hope so.”

“I... miss you a lot.”

“Kate... I... uhm...”

“Yes?”

“Did you know that men of this world can only get hard when a woman touches them?”

“Yea, I heard. It's pretty weird, isn't it?”

“It is. But... they think that I am the weird one.”

“Oh. That's to be expected I guess. Are they leaving you alone, though?”

“Yea... I mean... they locked my penis up. In a chastity cage.”

“What?!”

“You know, those little thingies...”

“I know! But seriously? What the fuck?” the girl's face reddened, and she stared at Ruby furiously. The archprincess held eye-contact, with an expression that reflected a mix of determination and sadness. Behind the computer screen, Alyssa chuckled.

“It is what it is, I guess... They don't like the idea that I can just get hard on my own,” Jay explained awkwardly. “But it's... it's just... I'm really not used to it, so...”

“I'll try to get you out of that thing! It's not okay! I know the archprincess, I'm with her right now, she is the top dog around here. I'll talk to her, I promise!”

“Really?”

Ruby sighed and shook her head.

“What?!” Kate snapped at her in frustration.

The archprincess slid down of the desk and turned around, leaning closer to the microphone. “Hello, Jay Fiddler! I am Ruby Sulien, the archprincess of Rosegleam. I regret having to lock you up like that, but you have to understand the context. In our society, there is meaning to men's sexuality being dependent on women, and so how you are is just extremely unusual for us. It would make people uneasy. From what I heard, you are taking it pretty well though. I applaud you for that. You will have to stay strong for us!”

“Bullshit! You can't just do this to him!” the girl yelled while tears gathered in her eyes.

“Katherine, listen! And Jay, you too. I may be the archprincess of this city, but I do not make all the decisions by myself. Especially not such important ones. I'm not the one who decided this alone. I just want you both to know this. I truly am sorry for all the difficulties you two have to go through! But please, bear with us! We really mean no harm.”

“Kate, it's okay,” Jay said. “It's not the end of the world... I'll be fine. I mean... yea.”

“Do you get to be unlocked at least?” Kate sniffled. “You don't have to wear it permanently, right?”

“No... I... I... it's complicated.”

“Huh?”

“I'm fine! Really, just don't worry about me!”

“Don't ask me that... I can't do that, I can't not worry.”

“Kate...”

Ruby stepped back and walked around the desk mechanically, sitting down on the sofa next to Alyssa. Hearing these two interact, seeing them being so intimate with each other, caring so much for each other... it made her stomach turn. Even though she tried to mentally prepare herself for it, witnessing it in real time still felt utterly shocking. But she really didn't want Katherine to see that feeling of hers. She didn't want to upset her further.

As she took a seat, the white-haired woman petted the top of her head comfortingly, grinning from ear to ear. Dammit Alyssa, you didn't change one bit!

Meanwhile, Jay did his best to stir the discussion away from his penis situation, asking Kate about her circumstances. Both Alyssa and Ruby knew that the boy already used the mating services of Rosegleam, supposedly his first session was just over. The archprincess was actually looking forward to him telling Katherine about it, hoping that maybe that would make the girl more accepting of the ways of Motherland, but now it was clear to Ruby that it would only disturb the poor girl. Which is why the boy is dancing around the topic, right? But of course...

As the earthlings kept talking, Katherine seemed to slowly calm down. They discussed the differences between the upper and lower city, such as how the canteens below have a menu of just a couple of dishes every day, while the ones women have offer a much bigger variety of food items; or how there are no cars below at all, but there are some above. Kate insisted that it's bullshit that men have so much less things in general, that they have to live in such a boring and grey district compared to women, but Jay said that in a way he doesn't mind the simplicity of the life of men in this place, although he added that a jacuzzi under starlight sounds pretty nice, and that he is jealous of the archprincess. (The casual, jokey manner in which he said that!) He then talked about his new neighbours, Osborn and Valentino, and Kate told him about her little shopping spree earlier that day (she did not mention the rings, those were meant to be a surprise). They were agreeing about feeling sad over the thought of their friends and families grieving their disappearance when Ruby signalled to the girl that their time is up. The young couple had no choice but to part ways once again.

They thanked Alyssa for her compliance, and walked outside. Ruby was watching Katherine from the corner of her eye, trying to determine how mad she is at her. For now, the girl seemed to be in a decent mood, like she got energized by her boyfriend's voice.

“Can we do this again?” Kate turned to the archprincess as they got in the car.

“Possibly. But I cannot promise for sure.”

“Oh, come on!”

“I'll try my best to find a way to let you, okay? But we can't do it too often, that's for sure.”

“Too often? How often is too often?”

“Maybe once a week would be okay. It depends on Alyssa too. We need someone who is working these contact centre shifts to let us in, someone we can trust.”

“Okay... once a week then.”

“As I said, I cannot promise it for sure, but maybe.”

“That chastity thing though... it's sick!”

“I know that you think that. I told you already, it's not even just up to me. But Jay Fiddler is a strong boy, I think he will be able to adapt.”

“He sure is strong...”

They fell silent for the rest of their car ride. Kate was fantasizing about Jay – while she didn't really admit it to herself, on some subconscious level she found the idea of him enduring this chastity thing and waiting for their reunion like that to be kind of appealing.

When they arrived back home and got out of the car, the girl followed Ruby to the front door, then suddenly asked: “So this Alyssa lady, do you two have history?”

Ruby was reaching into her shoulder bag, pulling out the keys to her house. “She used to live with me here. We used to be a couple.”

“Oh.”

“She is a princess too, by the way. Quite an unusual one at that...”

“Really? So she is a member of the council?”

“Yes.”

“Why would she work in a contact centre then, isn't she busy enough already?”

“Regular princesses are not THAT busy, and those contact centre jobs are pretty low-effort on our end, honestly. Most of men's stuff is handled automatically, she just has to oversee the system, she rarely gets an actual call. For the most part, things are well organised in this city, men don't often have unusual issues. That being said, Alyssa is a bit... curious about men. Perhaps a little too curious. But forget about her! Before we go to bed, would you like to watch a movie? Or...”

And then Ruby's phone rang. It was something important, apparently, because she told Kate that she had to leave for an hour or two.

“Is it about what we just did?” the girl asked.

“No, don't worry, nobody knows about that. I will be back soon!”

 

Sitting in her room alone, Katherine was contemplating her whole situation, and her impression of this world. Could it be that the human beings of Motherland are literally different? Maybe it's their brain structure, their biological programming. But Jay and herself, they were supposed to share 99.9% of their DNA with these people, and for the most part, the girl really didn't feel like they are all that fundamentally different. And so it had to be socialization. The women here might think that they had a good deal with this setup, but if they really are similar to the humans of Earth, deep down they must be suffering. This separation, and the hopeless longing that comes with it... they may not be aware of it, but it must be hurting them. There is just no way that this arrangement is truly satisfying for them, restrictive gender roles suck, after all. In which case, she should do her best to highlight that to the archprincess. Yes, she has to look for the cracks on the system. There have to be some cracks...

How could she find them, though? Highlighting them in Ruby herself by making her reflect on her true feelings, that was out of question. She was too confident and stubborn (and intimidating) to be challenged like that. As for Alyssa, she honestly made Kate feel kind of uneasy. There was something strange about her... was she a pervert? Still, those “dirty secrets” she supposedly had, those may have something to do with the type of things Kate was hoping to find. It might be a good idea to talk to her, but for now, the girl did not have her number, or even her full name, so that had to wait.

How about meeting some new people? Katherine was not technically confined to the home of the archprincess, it's not like she made a promise to Ruby to stay here all the time. What she did promise to her was to be careful with what she says around other people. Which she will be. So why not?

And so about thirty minutes later, she stepped out onto the street, wearing a short, blue skirt, a black crop top, and a blue denim jacket over it. She also put on some light make-up, had a black leather shoulder bag with her, and she was in a new pair of cute sandals with low block heels. The spring night (because currently it was spring on the northern hemisphere of Motherland, just like on Earth) was a bit chilly, but it didn't bother the girl.

She decided to follow the voice of that nightclub, the one that she noticed the previous night too from the terrace, when they were up there with Ruby. She walked down the wide street for a couple of minutes, then she took a left turn, a right turn, and through an alley, she arrived in a park. Earlier that day, the archprincess and her already visited it. It was surprisingly big and natural looking, considering the whole city was built on an artificial construct. Some parts of the park were full of colorful flowerbeds with a maze of gravelly pathways between them, other parts were wide, open grassy fields, separated by lines of trees. There was even a river cutting through it. During the day, there were plenty of women here – some walked their dogs, others were having picnics, playing ball games, or just sitting on the benches while reading. But now at nighttime, it was much more empty, and the only lightening it had were a couple of moody lampposts by the main paths. It was kind of eery, but the music was clearly coming from across the park, so Kate took a deep breath and hurried through it. As she was crossing a wooden bridge over the river, two woman passed by her, holding hands, murmuring to each other. They seemed perfectly relaxed, and that's when Kate realised that there are no men up here. A part of her hated how soothing that thought felt in the middle of a dark park...

Re-entering the city, she quickly found the place she was looking for. It was a big, light, Arabian looking building surrounded by palm trees. Above the entrance, a pink neon sign said “Oasis Club”. A small group of women were smoking cigarettes outside, two of them walked back in just as Kate arrived, magnifying the loud trance music for a moment as they opened the door. They were leaving a third girl behind, who looked quite drunk.

“Yea, just leave, you stupid cunt!” she yelled after the others, to which one of them replied with her middle finger before they disappeared behind the massive door.

Looks like an unsatisfied woman... it didn't take long, Katherine thought.

The drunken girl leaned against the wall of the building. She still had a half-empty bottle in hand, and she was smoking too. Her hairstyle was quite similar to Kate's – it was straight and shoulder length with side bangs – except she was a blonde. She seemed to be of a similar age as Kate too, even their height was pretty much the same. She was dressed quite scantily, wearing a tight, short, glittering black dress, and she had silver earrings with a little black pearl on each. But most importantly, she was evidently unhappy and frustrated, it was glaring. While Kate reluctantly approached her, the blonde tried to take out her phone from her small shoulder bag, but as her hands were already full, she ended up dropping it. Katherine picked it up for her.

“Here!”

“Ah, thanks, girl!” The blonde almost lost her balance as reached out for the mobile.

“Are you okay?” Kate asked. “You seem like you had a bit much.”

The other girl stared at Katherine intently, and her blue eyes lit up. “Wanna walk me back home, then?”

“Uhm... sure.”

“It's... that way!” she pointed at the hedge on the other side of the road. Beyond it was the park where Katherine came from.

“All right.”

The drunk girl put her arm around Kate's shoulder, and they walked across the street, entering the park through an opening on the row of bushes. Stumbling on a concrete path that was cutting through one of those open fields, Kate soon realised that the drunk girl is now enjoying herself: she became kind of giggly and she didn't seem to have the least bit of inhibition about their closeness. It was a bit weird.

“What's your name?” Katherine asked.

“Nessa. And what is your name, girly?”

“I'm Katherine. You can just call me Kate.”

“You have a... unique name, Kate. Beautiful!”

“Thanks.”

“Want a drink?”

“No, thanks.”

“Okay then.” They stopped, and Nessa chugged down her remaining alcohol. She then wiped her mouth and put the bottle down next to a lamppost.

“Okay, we can continue, sexy.” She spread her arms like she wants to hug Kate. The girl cautiously took a step back.

“I don't know what you expect from me. I'm just...”

“You're beautiful! Let me kiss you!” the blonde lunged forward.

“No!” Kate stepped back further, but Nessa almost fell again, so she still had to sort of catch her.

“You are making my world spin, girl! It's spinning and spinning and...” The blonde grabbed onto Kate's hips as she was half-standing.

“Just... sit down!” yelled the frustrated Kate.

“Yes, ma'am!” Nessa slid down to the ground, and then she fell back, lying on the cool grass right next to the pathway. She closed her eyes, and began humming a song drunkenly. Katherine just watched her for a while, then she crouched down next to her, sighing.

“What is your issue, Nessa? Are you unhappy?”

“I'm just a lonely girl. Wanna make my day?”

“I don't. Sorry, but I'm not attracted to women.”

“Not at all?”

“I... don't think so.”

“Fuck me...”

What's wrong with her? Kate sighed again. “Look, Nessa, don't you feel like you are lacking something in your life?”

“I do. I'm lacking a damn dick!”

“You what?”

Nessa sat up, getting quite emotional all of a sudden. “You girls are driving me crazy. Crazy! What do women want? Just what? If only I was born as a man... if only I was born with a fucking penis... why? Why couldn't I?”

This was not at all what Kate was expecting, and she didn't know how to react.

“If I was a man, you know what I would do? I would fuck women. One after the other. I would just work, and then I would deserve it. No questions asked. Please!”

Nessa once again lunged forward, grasping towards Kate, who quickly stood up. The blonde still managed to hold onto her ankle, and while Katherine's first instinct was to get herself free, she noticed that Nessa was now sobbing. She seemed totally defeated.

“I wish I was a man...” she sniffed. “I wish I was a man so bad... I hate myself. I hate my life.”

The sincerity in the drunken girl's voice genuinely made Kate's heart ache, even if she was conflicted. She wished she could comfort Nessa, but if the girl was such a lesbian, that might have been a bad idea, she didn't want to send mixed signals. Another part of her also wished to yell at Nessa for how stupid she was. Wanting to be a man for such a dumb reason... Either way, she felt like she is not really in danger, so she decided to let the girl hold onto her ankle a while longer. She can allow her that much.

After about a minute, the blonde let go of her on her own, and lied down again on her back, staring up at Kate through her tears.

“You think I'm pathetic, don't you?”

“I think you need to sober up.”

Nessa cried for a little longer, then she finally stood up, and they continued their walk. For a while, they were silent, then the drunk girl suddenly began to rant about her bad experiences dating (or more like trying to) women, about how hopeless she finds it, how much she got rejected, ghosted, left in the dust. Kate just let her get it out of her system.

As it turned out, the blonde was living on the same street as the archprincess, just a couple of blocks away. Her home was a tall, tower-like pink house with a toy skeleton hanging from the highest balcony, and a rather unkept front garden. They ended up exchanging phone numbers, and while Katherine tried to really drive home the point that she is only interested in being friends, Nessa seemed a bit too enthusiastic and happy about it anyway. Still, however dumb this girl was, she most definitely did not enjoy the gender roles of this society, and Kate felt like that's something worth holding onto.