How Taylor Hebert Agreed to Be a Slut [Worm/Slut Life]

[Hahn]

Another thing that's going to be interesting is how SL is going to react to this mess.

On the current path, Taylor will still have to go through with the contract. But stubborn Taylor will be doing it sexless and probably put an effort into bring as bland and passive resistant as possible.

Currently, the SL exec's think they made Taylor this great deal and have a happy, engaged participant. Then they look away for a bit, and suddenly she's disillusioned, doing it sexless and will have no wish of coming back - all because some random employees arbitrarily decided to fuck up the deal. Somebody will be in trouble here...

 

[Ack]

Okay. With the huge backlash, plus some advice from my beta (she normally doesn't handle my NSFW stuff, but she's a past master at defining the things a mother will and will not do) I've decided on a rewrite. This rewrite will change the entire thrust of the two chapters without making it necessary to actually scrap either one ... at least not in totality.

Rest assured, I've taken the advice on board, and I'm moving forward to fix this shit.

Watch this space.

 

[edale]

A possible idea.

Rather than the contract swap, there's some loophole that Taylor and Co missed that would require her to have sex (or possibly some kind of mental modification), but legal/Arbor found (Arbor calls them to his office before people show up to take Taylor to the medbays, or while Taylor's en-route), and they agree to the gangbang to not have that loophole exploited.

When Taylor starts protesting too much, have Annette come clean about the hormone imbalance, and explain how it's been really hard for her to not be jumping on every guy she comes across until it's fixed, so she needs the gangbang just as much as Taylor needs to not get fucked over on her contract.

And drop the bit about forcing Taylor to watch/control the breaks.

I'm actually not too sure I like that progression fully (don't like the Annette gangbang), but it's internally consistent with the story and universe, and eliminates pretty much everyone's complaints.

 

[Guardian54]

There are not enough meme's in existence to properly portray how hard I head-desked when I read this.

So enjoy this one instead:

Click to shrink...

Isn't that the general reaction whenever Void_Cowboy voids his bowels onto PHO (i.e. shitposts, shits posts, posts shit, etc.)?

Watch this space.

Click to shrink...

This turn of phrase greatly interests me.
I'm pretty sure you've gotten more than a few complaints of "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take a break from reading your fics, you ask us to watch blank screen space far too often"...

BTW I support your decision (obviously given I was one of the guys yelling for it). Hope we weren't TOO rude for you to put up with...

 

[edale]

Isn't that the general reaction whenever Void_Cowboy voids his bowels onto PHO (i.e. shitposts, shits posts, posts shit, etc.)?

Click to shrink...

Why yes, my comparison of you to XXX_Void_Cowboy_XXX is much more than skin deep.

I'll point to the Commercial Break thread as proof, lol.

Oh, and just so you know, like most other characters, Void's posting habits are blown quite a bit out of proportion in fanon, compared to canon.

Sadly, you match the fanon model.

 

[Guardian54]

Oh, and just so you know, like most other characters, Void's posting habits are blown quite a bit out of proportion in fanon, compared to canon.

Sadly, you match the fanon model.

Click to shrink...

That means I'm either:
a) always right on the money but never believed
OR
b) getting infracted

Since I haven't been infracted here or om Commercial Break... thanks for the compliment!


Anyhow, you can't have contracts without trust being important. You trust that the contracts will be upheld, and in a post-scarcity society... if a group gets a reputation for being malicious with their contracts there are always other groups to take over business for them. It's more efficient to have legal resolutions and very good customer service than to have to reinvent yourself under a new brand every time enough (often a rather large number) morons fuck up the old brand. And then there's internal factional struggles inside brands such as "Department A outperformed Department B last year..." stuff. Because it's post-scarcity, the competition is basically a sport between the teams.

There is no reason post-scarcity customer service when they have to kidnap people and at least pretend to have a consensual, well-defined contract in good faith (you could just pretend they chose mindwipe when you actually did it for them by force) should be anything close to bad. In fact give the above idea of a minor contest between teams the customer service should be quite accommodating, within reason of course (i.e. "no you don't get to revise the contract a month in, only for the first week, in case of allergies with owners or something. Sorry but it's clearly defined here on the first of these five pages, see?... Don't tell me you didn't bother reading a five-page contract in detail...").

 

[Fellgrave]

My own two cents Ack : While I liked the premise, and Taylor's initial plan, and even the idea of having her end up having to do stuff anyways despite her best efforts, I did not like the execution of that idea. I'm not a fan of the stuff working in the background around Taylor in this chapter, ie her mother's machinations and/or the machinations of the executives.

That said, if you wanted to go and force Taylor to take some other options, and this is my opinion, I would suggest maybe when she tries to complete the contract, it's refused. When she tries again, she finds an alert or message saying that due to whatever - further risk analysis, internal discussion, etc - the credit scores have been updated, thus leaving her down a significant chunk of points.

This way, Taylor can make the conscious decision to go forward with things, as at this point, Tori and Annette can step in, and with Annette being high on hormones, offer some advice and perspective that isn't exactly 5 by 5. They can have a discussion of things, and maybe avoid a bunch of the duplicity and betrayal that (to me) plagues this chapter. This would also avoid the whole issue of the Gareth and Arbor being too over the top villainous.

I think part of people's issues with the chapter, beyond the execution, were that after the previous chapter, you defended the lack of more... active options, by stating that this would only be Taylor's first run, and a fairly short one. This chapter seemed to completely undermine that, certainly at the very least it would make any further runs a very, very hard sell.

Just my two cents. Honestly, I'd probably stick around to read regardless of what you did, but I just felt that I should offer some ideas to potentially improve things.

 

[edale]

Anyhow, you can't have contracts without trust being important. You trust that the contracts will be upheld

Click to shrink...

The devil disagrees. And he always upholds the letter of his contracts.

Which is actually a good example of the contract being sacrosanct while trust is not.

 

[Guardian54]

The devil disagrees. And he always upholds the letter of his contracts.

Which is actually a good example of the contract being sacrosanct while trust is not.

Click to shrink...

And that's why everyone who doesn't deserve a Darwin Award doesn't make deals with the Devil.

See? Bad rep = not as many customers as he'd have otherwise!

 

[Ack]

Okay, everyone.

Major rewrite has been done.

Start here for the reboot of these last two chapters.

 

[eddyforty]

now that is much better

 

[Ack]

Okay, putting a call out to everyone else who commented.

Your voices have been heard.

january1may
Guardian54
Nugar
WindCall12
Silvercrystal
FlyingWaffle
Jonakhensu
Darkarma
7SFOmenSJ
KhazintheDark
Jetsmillion
norgeshma
Tortoise
arthurh3535
GladiusLucix
Thatonesungod
zakaar
Zeushobbit
HereticZAKU
edale
Chojomeka
Wolfboy
Fragment off
Cailin
Death by Chains
shiyochan
Hahn
Mgunh1
Thecryingbladesman
Twilight666
Fellgrave

Two posts up is the link to the rewrite.

 

[Ack]

now that is much better

Click to shrink...

Yeah. Not sure what I was really thinking. I guess I got caught up in "this is a cool plot device" and didn't think it all the way through.

So yeah.

 

[GladiusLucix]

So, I was trying to throw together a little omake of what I saw as the most reasonable course of action Taylor once she finds out what Annette did, probably due to her or Tori blurting something out while fuckdrunk in the gangbang.

But then Ack imped me with the rewrite.

I'm posting it anyway.
----
Taylor turned from the display she'd felt forced to watch, and picked up Tori's laptop. She figured there had to be some voice activated controls, she started by simply asking, "I have some questions about my contract, but my two usual points of contact are..." She paused and glanced back at the display. "Indisposed."

After a few moments, a map opened on the screen, which led her to a room in the same general area as Arbor's office. Her knock on the door was met with a sharp, "Come in," and so she did. She was greeted by the most androgynous person she had ever seen.

"Pleased to meet you, Miss?" asked the person behind the desk.

"Taylor Hebert. Thank you for answering my questions, um..."

"Pat Bell, Miss Hebert. Just call me Bell, and don't worry about a title; I'm currently genderless, so neither appropriately applies," Bell responded.

"Okay." Taylor blinked at the idea, but continued on. "My first question is about the verbal contract that I made that required me to sign up for Slut Life, in exchange for my mother being brought back from the dead. I've recently discovered that the woman I thought was my mother is, apparently, some random slut that just looks like her. I assume it's too much to hope that this can get me out of the contract I was required to sign?"

Bell looked over the data on their terminal. "Honestly, all the paperwork I'm seeing indicates that she is your real mother, so that's a 'No' to that. Even if there was sufficient proof that she wasn't your mother, it would still be near impossible for anyone not the CEO to get you out of your Slut Life contract."

Taylor sighed. "I thought that's what the answer would be, but thought I might as well ask. For my second question, is it possible, at this point, to change the specific person filling an owner role? I don't want that woman pretending to be my mother for the time I'm signed up for. I'd ask to change the person I selected for the Cutie owner role, but I know there is a verbal contract enforcing that choice."

Bell continued typing as Taylor spoke. "Yes, I found the contract for the Cutie position, And the only contract I'm finding on the Married Couple position is that Kenneth Arbor allows it, not ensures it. Any preferences?"

"Non-incestuous, and not her," Taylor said flatly. After a moment's thought, she added, "Maybe a pair of gay men?"

Bell nodded. "Perfectly doable," they said, entering the changes. "And you understand that they will still be your roomates, and will be holding the controls for all the things your mother would have?"

"Yes," Taylor said. "Out of curiosity, what penalties would I likely incur for breaking the contract anout the Cutie position? Would it likely be more or less that my monetary reward as my Slut Life contract stands?"

"For a single twelve hour shift as owner? Almost definitely less."

"Then please change that as well. Anyone but her," Taylor said.

"All done," Bell replied. "Do you have any other questions about your contract?"

"Not about the contracts," Taylor said, "but is there anyway I can prevent them from contacting me, ever again?"

 

[Twilight666]

Okay, everyone.

Major rewrite has been done.

Start here for the reboot of these last two chapters.

Click to shrink...

Yeah this is much better. Although part of me want to make a joke about honest communication in worm breaking my SoD .
(Then again Annete is not a cape)

Also I asked in the NSFW thread but it probably got lost but how come this is not on AO3?

 

[WindCall12]

Much better.

 

[GladiusLucix]

Having read the rewrites, I think the new direction is much better. I ALSO think it fits the title much better. The original version was very much "How Talor Hebert Agreed to be on Slut Life." The rewrite has it looking like Taylor might have a good time, and agree to go on again, with somewhat more libertine choices.

I doubt she'll ever get to a point where she signs up for a year long term with each day scheduled for 12+ hours of some sort of free use, but it no longer looks like her first run will be her last.

 

[january1may]

Now I'm really sad that I couldn't just retroactively unsee the old version of the chapters, because the way the new version is set up, combined with the way the old version was set up, makes me expect a gut punch in the next chapter.

However, I fully and entirely agree that, if taken on face value (which it's probably supposed to), it's a much better (and much more sensible) plot direction, and thanks, Ack, for listening to us and making it that way.

 

[Ack]

Now I'm really sad that I couldn't just retroactively unsee the old version of the chapters, because the way the new version is set up, combined with the way the old version was set up, makes me expect a gut punch in the next chapter.

However, I fully and entirely agree that, if taken on face value (which it's probably supposed to), it's a much better (and much more sensible) plot direction, and thanks, Ack, for listening to us and making it that way.

Click to shrink...

It is most certainly intended to be taken at face value.

Of course, once she starts her run, there will be shenanigans. Of sorts. Not involving Annette or Tori, except incidentally.

 

[Ack]

Yeah this is much better. Although part of me want to make a joke about honest communication in worm breaking my SoD .
(Then again Annete is not a cape)

Also I asked in the NSFW thread but it probably got lost but how come this is not on AO3?

Click to shrink...

Look, an obvious distraction!

(Um, because I haven't gotten around to it yet?)

[wanders off absent-mindedly]

 

[lackofgravitas]

Rewrite makes a lot more sense characters behaving intelligently

 

[Silvercrystal]

I am also in favor of the rewrite of those chapters, very well done and it also feels like it's more in line with the direction previous chapters had been heading.

 

[Muroshi9]

I was definitely hoping that the Magical Girl part came up as one of the first owners and the Aphrodisiac Slime Tentacle Monsters catch her. That would be a way for some drama without the disaster that nearly turned out to be. Glad that you changed it and here's hoping for the tentacles changing her perspective.

 

[Guardian54]

The revision and addition of Chapter 2.5 is very, very good. I think given these events the whole Hebert family might cum back for a vacation at some point.

But Taylor is still an idiot, as we all know and expect

"What Mom said about you trying to seduce me when I wake up ... you won't really try that on me, will you?" I wasn't sure what I wanted her answer to be. On the one hand, I was about as sexually insecure as anyone could be, having exactly zero experience in anything of the sort. On the other, I had been noticing Tori's body, and I liked her, and I knew she liked me. I have no idea what to do in this situation.

Click to shrink...

If you're actually nervous instead of fearful, you obviously know what you actually want! Well, if you're fearful you also obviously know what you want the answer to be, i.e. "no". nervous is just your mental illness acting up.

The thing is, now Taylor is BELIEVABLY stupid, not like before.

I was definitely hoping that the Magical Girl part came up as one of the first owners and the Aphrodisiac Slime Tentacle Monsters catch her. That would be a way for some drama without the disaster that nearly turned out to be. Glad that you changed it and here's hoping for the tentacles changing her perspective.

Click to shrink...

I do not think that would work.

Taylor's head-up-ass syndrome would have her convinced sex only felt good because of the mind-altering substances and associate it with drugs she might end up addicted to.

Annette could inform her then that eating, drinking, and even just really smiling (instead of faking) also release chemicals in the brain that make you feel happier. And that someone who never let their brain release any such chemicals would die in short order due to brain shutdown.

 

[edale]

Ack MUCH better,

Also considering earlier mentioned comments about hoping she would scout for others from her world to take part in SL the original chapters which had a bunch of us pissed off would have shot that to hell.

Click to shrink...

Are you sure you're not thinking of the Commercial Break thread? That's the fic where Taylor's becoming a recruiter.

 

[necrolectric]

Well this thread has been an absolute rollercoaster today. Having seen both versions of the chapter, I have to agree that this new direction is a much more sensible one, and I want to thank Ack for not being too proud to listen to his readers.

That said, while the original version of the chapter inspired me to put some more work into doing my own Taylor-in-Slut-Life story, I'm also a little concerned because so far both of the stories that already exist in that vein have had huge controversies that result in multiple pages worth of arguing. Who knew that this, of all the story premises on this site, would be one that is so prone to creating disconnects between author and readers.

 

[CrimsonFate]

It be interesting to see if Slut Life did a special for a new contestant where they make a partnership with different CYOA's that the contestant can add to their contracts in effort to save points like tentacles, magical girls, maid life, and a bunch of others that can made up for it. For example the tentacles one it can help save on the new body mods but you must choose to have and you won't keep the tentacles if don't want to.

 

[Jonakhensu]

Ack, I agree with the general consensus. This version is much better than the original. It doesn't leave any gaping characterization holes and doesn't set Taylor up to hate everyone.

Now I'm just looking forward to Taylor finding out what some of Tori's favorite activities are. The Cutie might not be able to order Taylor to have sex with her (which is not included in any text of a cutie's function that I can remember seeing), but she is supposed to take Taylor around to some of her favorite places and activities, and Tori is quite the carnal kitty.

 

[Sleepyfoo]

Well this thread has been an absolute rollercoaster today. Having seen both versions of the chapter, I have to agree that this new direction is a much more sensible one, and I want to thank Ack for not being too proud to listen to his readers.

That said, while the original version of the chapter inspired me to put some more work into doing my own Taylor-in-Slut-Life story, I'm also a little concerned because so far both of the stories that already exist in that vein have had huge controversies that result in multiple pages worth of arguing. Who knew that this, of all the story premises on this site, would be one that is so prone to creating disconnects between author and readers.

Click to shrink...

I Think it's in no small part a mismatch of expectations.

I heard "Slut Life" and the premise of the CYOA, and thought PWP regardless of safe-for-work section, or at least a light-hearted romp, kinks excepting. Even more, people have wildly disparate ideas of what perks are desired/rewards to get, and what they are willing to tolerate (or think the character is/should be willing to tolerate) to get them.

Also munckinry, too much vs Not Enough.

The new version of Chapter 3 makes much more intuitive sense, and is much more in line with the tone of the prior chapters. I like it much more than the original version.

That said, I would like to comment on the original version of chapter 3.

Spoiler: spoiler for those who don't care

when I initially read chapter 3, my thought was Mr G did something nefarious. This lasted right up until Arbor decided to extort favors from tori and set up a particularly fucked up situation for taylor(Second Trigger into Dominion!Taylor GO!). At that point I was super confused, and rather disturbed. Arbor's behavior just didn't make sense to me.

That said, what I wanted to comment on was the potential it was just Mr G being Nefarious and the justifications he could have had. The way I figure it, he knows taylor wants to nail him to a wall and let him get eaten by bugs for the nasty recruitment trick he pulled on her. Indeed, he's already had to deal with an official complaint bringing attention on him. He's probably done things like this before, but everyone else wasn't as on guard because he usually chooses his marks and lawyers better. Unfortunately for him, Taylor has received all sorts of attention from a variety of places and so she got Tori as her lawyer and Taylor is super paranoid about authority, particularly after Mr G's first screw-up. So he stays close, has his pet medic and some guards on standby, and his plan is taylor signs the wrong contract, and his medic messes with her head to make her think it was the right one. Maybe a bit of adjustment to both Tori and Annette if necessary. He didn't count on them being on guard, spotting the swap, nor being surprisingly competent melee combatants. So he tries to bluff one last time, and his swap was almost complete enough to fool Arbor.

However, once Taylor and the Station AI reveal the swap and thus the Hack/Security breach, Arbor promises to take care of it, and taylor sees a surprisingly rapid and competent bureaucracy spring into action, setting things to rights. Mr. G is caught, in no small part because it's super suspicious that he's even around, let alone the one to take taylor to medical with guards. Plus the omnipresent AI probably caught some plotting now that it thinks to look for it. Maybe a record of a verbal contract of the bribe to get the guards/medic Mr G's side.

This is naturally contrary to Taylor's entire world view (she's not as disillusioned as Skitter, but she's probably pretty close, particularly post locker(even immediately post locker)). People in positions of authority Helping? punishing those responsible? actually Investigating (even if initially doubtful and surly about it)?

It might actually boost taylor's trust in SL, as well as give Taylor some confidence. After all, while her mom supported her 100% (and didn't that feel nice) Taylor still protected herself, and was the one to ultimately find that crucial bit of evidence that got Mr G in trouble, and got her the contract she wanted. It might even give her hope that, powers aside, finding the right authority to present evidence of bullying to could resolve her problems there too. It could be a very different Taylor going into her week-long run of the show, more convinced than ever that this was a good choice, and firm in her conviction to make it through.

Also of note, there's a reason I've been calling Gareth "Mr. G", Because he's the same kind of smarmy "everyone's friend" that Gladly is, he's just better at it and using it to more nefarious ends.

Aaand I just realized I'm confusing Gareth with Jacob from Commercial Break, as well as confusing their openings. Most of the above is invalid, as in this story, Gareth is just a secretary or something for Arbor. I also confused Arbor for Executive Bob from commercial break. Sigh.

Most of the potential changes to Taylor stand, though, with a side order of a bit of redemption for Arbor in Taylor's eyes. It could have been an interesting story. And much better than Annette being the mastermind.

I look forward to where you take this unsure and somewhat confused (but still a bit hopeful) Taylor, Ack.

 

[Shoes]

Well this thread has been an absolute rollercoaster today. Having seen both versions of the chapter, I have to agree that this new direction is a much more sensible one, and I want to thank Ack for not being too proud to listen to his readers.

That said, while the original version of the chapter inspired me to put some more work into doing my own Taylor-in-Slut-Life story, I'm also a little concerned because so far both of the stories that already exist in that vein have had huge controversies that result in multiple pages worth of arguing. Who knew that this, of all the story premises on this site, would be one that is so prone to creating disconnects between author and readers.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I started one myself too. Set after Annette's gangbang where a fucked-silly Annette is forced by the men participating to confess to Taylor that she's such a slut that she changed the contract on her so she could get a free gangbang out of it, it was all a ruse, so funny ha ha, and so on. Taylor runs out of the room after she calls out to her mother, but she is too blissed out to notice, and they find her when they go get cleaned up, face a pale purple and her body unmoving; she hung herself from a coathook in the women's locker room. She's dead.

Annette freaks the fuck out, the room spins in her senses, and she reaches the point where she's pulling her hair out. Tori tries to calm her down, but gives up when Annette slumps down across from Taylor's corpse and starts slamming her head against the wall, muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." In the end she calls security and has her sedated.

Flash forward a few days. Tori and Kenneth are nowhere to be seen-- Tori fired for gross negligence, subjecting a suicidal bullied girl to even worse psychological torment, and Kenneth for going along (and setting it up in the first place, by having Annette revived into a modified body, something that might be a criminal breach of consent) with her just for a chance to sneak in better ratings by having Taylor watch her mother fucked silly-- and Annette is begging for help from the higher ups, but the issue is bigger than she expects. Reviving Taylor is a huge problem: she ended her life of her own free will, free of coercion, so if she's brought back she'll come back a resentful, twisted shade of herself. It's not an insurmountable problem given some psychological help, but the fact that it was her mother that pushed her to suicide, there's basically no hope for their relationship at all... and they'll still force her and Taylor to hold to the original contract; Annette will spend the length of the contract playing at being Taylor's mother, a Taylor who can't stand the sight of her and might actually hate her enough to harm her-- even to the point of maiming. Same goes for any of her hot button issues. Impersonal authority figures, traitors, manipulators, those who have responsibility but are negligent, bullies... Taylor comes back with her soul twisted around her break point, and her rebirth has left her galvanized.

Furthermore there's an even bigger problem, the roots of which lie in Slut Life's architecture as a large-scale mana gathering ritual. Because of Taylor's role as the focal point for the very first instance of the ritual in her multiverse (which by necessity has to include someone with an 'significant destiny'), her twisted first show has twisted repercussions for the quality and alignment of mana gathered there in the future, and for the metaphysical nature of sex to begin with; slowly but increasing with time sex becomes a dark and degenerate thing on Earth-Worm... unless Slut Life can make Taylor (and Annette) come to terms with her issues.

Flash forward to the epilogues:

Taylor finishes the show with decent ratings, her issues creating drama as her misconceptions about sex and relationships are ground down, and her trust in others is built up. At the end, she files a complaint that they never revived her mother-- there's a hoopla about semantics where the courts and Slut Life go to war about what constitutes a person, and it's ruled that revival is nothing more and nothing less than the person as he or she existed at the time of death, mind, body and soul; Annette is a body and mind possessing the wrong soul, the first legal instance... she's ruled to be an aberration holding a soul in bondage-- like a lich's philactery-- and ordered to be terminated, to be constituted again in another body and mind as of her time of death in canon.

In her depression when finding out that Taylor didn't think of her as her mother this entire time, and all that she's done in pursuit of atonement, she's been wandering. Her tendons shortened and strengthened so all she can wear are ridiculous bimbo heels, lips puffed up, tits phenomenally huge, hips wide and ass bubbly, she's an image of the slut she is inside (on Taylor's orders, over the course of the show)... and she's found suffocating on the same hook in the same locker room Taylor killed herself. The team sent to apprehend her-- itself comprised of some of the men that participated in the gangbang that started it all, and the guy who 'forced' her to confess to Taylor-- decide to have one last round with the slut while she dies. Annette's last sight and sounds in that life is the grunting scowl of the man who started her on this path, and a stream of invective over how big a useless slut only good as a cum dump she is. Unconsciousness sets in as she has one final orgasm...

And she wakes up from a coma in a hospital years after her car crash, with the love of her life at her bedside, and her beloved daughter giving her a teary smile.

Then I realized this is a fucking novel length smutfic omake and went back to writing my shitty SI fic.