*** We don’t make any money in Joss’s verse, we just play here.

PART I- Post BDM: in which Inara teaches a couple of novices the tricks of the trade.

Prologue: When the original colony ships had arrived, the society was largely egalitarian due to the long shipboard confinement and huge sacrifices and death rates involved in terraforming and settling the raw worlds they found. Sacred prostitution by both males and females was seen as a public service and was actually done on a rotating basis among the whole population on some ships and in the early colonies.

As the core worlds gained in prosperity, the companions began to be elevated in status. As the clientele gained wealth and status, the guild chose to bar from their membership all but the most highly trained companions and excluding the more common prostitutes that serviced the working classes. The companions also began to incorporate elements of geisha and Greek companion standards and practices.

The settlement of the rim worlds also saw the rise of neo-Puritanism and the consequential rise in discrimination against the common prostitutes in their midst. The companions of the core worlds continued to rise in status while they in turn elevated the cult of Isis to ritualized ceremony with few actual believers.

The rim world colonists who largely came from the poor classes of the core worlds looked back with nostalgia on the culture and glamour of the core worlds and especially the companions.

With prestige, the guild gained power and became a significant player among the power elite. People who know how to manipulate lust, desire and considerable funds have to operate in the real world if for no other reason than self protection.

And for self-protection, the guild had always maintained an elite group of covert agents drawn from within their own ranks who discreetly provided protection to the companions. Of course, all companions were trained in a variety of self-defense arts including weapons. It was a point of honor that no-one ever robbed or forced a companion against their will without suffering severe repercussions including death.

Unlike the corporations, with their top-down hierarchical organization, the companion guild was always run by an association of elected officials with leadership coming from the most skilled practitioners and teachers of the sexual arts: that is: the priestesses. Like traditional prostitutes, most companions were female and the males as they got older tended to gravitate towards administration or enforcement.

Setting: Inara’s shuttle:
As Inara sat in the pilot’s seat, going through preflight check, flames lanced past her cockpit window. Like the true professional she was, she was extremely thorough. “I see Kaylee tightened up those coupling sleeves. I don’t detect even the slightest leak.” Their friendship and the adoration of a young mechanic meant that her shuttle always received loving attention.

Inara paused to look outside at the flames blasting past the window and admired their beauty and thought once again “This is what the first astronauts must have seen”. And with each buffet of flame she thought “There but for the buffer dampening shield, I would just be a puff of ash”.

River’s voice came over the intercom. “OK, Inara our speed is dropping down to MACH two and you’re good to go”.

“Thanks Mei-mei, undocking, three-two-one undocked.” As the shuttle cleared, Inara pulled up on the yoke, kicked the rudder and pulled a complete Immilman turn and headed towards her appointment. She then pulled a barrel roll out of sheer exuberance.

One thing that Inara had never confessed to Wash, Mal, or even River (though she was sure River knew) was that she loved to fly. Just then River’s voice chirped “Yahoo, cowgirl – have fun.”

“Thanks, I’ll do my best. See you at the rendezvous. Out.” As she hung inverted in the sky over Boros, Inara thought “Worlds like marbles in the sky and stars like dust beneath her feet” Such was the glamorous life she imaged when she set out to become a companion.

Of course, life these days was different. Ever since Miranda, she had become known as ‘that Companion’ who had helped to embarrass the Alliance and the major corporations who were running the government. Since most of her wealthy clients were corporate or government connected, and the point of having a companion was to show off their conspicuous consumption, Inara was suddenly without clients. Being publicly connected to a known terrorist (who obviously hated freedom as the corporate media put it) was not something they could afford. The plebs lionized Inara and her charms were publicly sung about and often embarrassingly exaggerated. But plebs could not pay her fees, nor could she cut her rates without violating guild law.

Inara had decided to utilize a little known pro bono clause because it was considered temple duty and released her from guild dues and fees. Inara would use her considerable skills and talents as a relationship counselor. This was also to mollify Mal’s puritan prejudices. She conveniently neglected to mention that her services would include sex therapy.

Inara had always enjoyed the relationship and couple client classes at the training house and as a companion she had often been hired by celebratory couples for special occasions. She remembered with pleasure a unique night with two male dancers whose stamina was prodigious and only rivaled by their sweet nature and fashion sense.

Speaking of which, she could use a relationship counselor herself for her relationship with Mal. They were strongly attracted to each other but they couldn’t seem to get past her profession and his Puritanism. But that would have to wait; right now she had to earn a living.

As she dropped in towards the town of White Pine, Boros, she couldn’t help but notice how raw the world looked. Terraforming had stabilized Atmo and gravity and accelerated soil formation. But the soil was only inches thick and would not support real vegetation. The local community was operating under a boom economy due to rich and rare mineral deposits. Consequently local government employees were relatively impoverished.

A couple she interviewed over the cortex both worked at the local terraforming quality control testing lab. On any settled planet they would have been comfortable middle class, but on this planet, planetary inflation had pushed them into poverty. Consequently they now qualified for pro bono services when they applied for relationship counseling.

During separate interviews Inara had established that the relationship was going on seven years with one child. They remained loving and committed to each other but somewhere the sex part went south. He complained that she was repressed and inhibited and the pressures of work left him with little time for romance. She complained that he often seemed disinterested and that when they did make love he was often finished too soon and she was left unsatisfied.

Both of them seemed intelligent and described themselves as open-minded both were also overawed that a glamorous and legendary companion would deign to give them counseling and amazed that her fees were so reasonable.

As her shuttle entered the landing pattern for the white pine spaceport she noticed the usual cluster of rough housing in cheap bars and casinos and brothels. They had grown up between the port and the workers quarters which were laid out in the traditional pattern of the terraforming authority with another cluster near the local mines and processing mills.

Inara thought. “Oh well, this is how Londinium and Shinon had started out hundreds of years ago.”

Once landed she contracted with a healthy looking and good natured Pedi cab driver who gave her a running commentary on the local sites such as they were. She had chosen a nondescript traveling cloak with hood and a sturdy traveling kit on wheels that Book had given her as a parting gift.

When she had arrived, Inara paid her driver and announced herself. She then greeted her clients in the traditional manner. Their child had been sent on a sleepover with trusted friends.

After they welcomed her in, and they shared tea, Inara silently appraised them: Gabriel was a tall, muscular good looking man with a good mixture of African ancestry and Mocha colored skin. Harmony was a willow thin oriental of striking beauty. Both were obviously techno-geeks. Gabriel hid his nervousness and discomfort by being over solicitous and was obliviously relieved to be sent off on a superfluous errand.

Inara and Harmony settled into girl talk and while the chatted; Inara asked her how she felt about her sexuality. Harmony replied that she had been raised in a traditional Chinese household with repressed sexuality and her few experiments in tech school were brief and unsatisfactory. She always felt that she was unattractive and that men felt intimidated by her intelligence. Inara laughed and stated that based on her looks, brains and grace, Harmony would have been considered as an obvious candidate for companion school.

Harmony blushed at the compliment and Inara took her hand in hers and said “Let’s make you beautiful for Gabriel.” While Inara supervised her toilette, she selected several items of jewelry for Harmony including toe rings and a belly necklace that would compliment her long delicate toes and tiny waist.. Inara also selected perfume, aphrodisiacs and sex crèmes.

As Harmony dressed, and Inara washed, they talked about the life of a companion. It was clear that Harmony was starting to display a schoolgirl crush on Inara. She also confessed that she was secretly disappointed in her first encounter that Gabriel was a virgin with even less experience than she; however, his good looks and sweet nature had won her over.

Inara laughed and clapped her hands “Excellent, It looks like we have our work cut out for us, don’t we?” Harmony charmingly blushed and smiled at the floor. When Gabriel arrived, Inara sent him into the shower with a simple garment and instructions to shave and put on a very small amount of his best cologne. When he emerged, they were all dressed in a simple toga-like silk garment that was clasped at the shoulder, the standard companion training outfit for the sex practical labs.

Candles had been lit, and Gabriel stood there in awe of the two beautiful women who stood in front of him, the glamorous companion and his suddenly gorgeous wife. Perhaps it was the aphrodisiac scented incense that Inara had lit or the seductive perfume that his wife was wearing. Inara then had Gabriel light a recently purchased pipe full of spice weed.

Inara then told them that they should consider themselves companions in training and that she would be their instructor. “Now I realize that we are all clean and relaxed, but I want to teach you how to wash each other’s feet.” Inara then taught them her specialty by example and had them repeat on each other and then on herself.

When they were pleasantly relaxed, Inara began to describe how beautiful she thought Harmony looked that night. She praised her shiny blue black hair and the smooth texture of her “old ivory” colored skin. “Now Gabriel, I want you to forget everything you know about Harmony and approach her as if pleasing her was the most important task of your life.”

Gabriel nervously swallowed and nervously reached out towards his wife. Inara was secretly both amused and touched at the slight tremble with which he stroked the mother of his child. Inara then had him approach Harmony from the back and smell her hair and neck while he stroked her arms and pressed her palms to his lips. At Inara’s command, he loosed the clasp at his wife’s shoulder and began a light massage and kissing of her back. “Now, Harmony, I want you to turn to Gabe and let him look at your breasts. Gabriel, really look at them and worship her perfectly conical breasts with gentle kisses and caresses” Inara again smiled inwardly at the tender and marveling manner that these life partners were treating one another.

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