Confederal Neobureaucracy of Enrichment Research and Development

"Say one affini discovers that their pet Terran has a sensitive spot beneath the edge of their ear. This is vital information that cannot simply be allowed to be lost to their individual relationship! Who knows how many other Terrans possess this delightful extra sensitivity? How much play could potentially be missed out upon by failing to make an owner aware of such a quirk?   We here at the Confederal Neobureaucracy of Enrichment Research and Development take this issue very seriously, and it is our mission statement to ensure that every affini is made aware of as many ways to enrich the relationship between them and their pet as possible; which is to say, ideally all of them."
— Wenrella Astinmium, 174th Bloom; founder of CNERD
  The Confederal Neobureaucracy of Enrichment Research and Development (known as CNERD for short; allegedly much to the amusement of many Terrans, for reasons as-yet not understood by the affini) is a relatively new branch of the Affini Compact; established only around 80,000 years ago, hence its status as a 'neobureaucracy' rather than an 'archaeobureaucracy.'   The role of the Neobureaucracy is to collect information on the various domestication techniques developed by affini with their florets in the time after the completion of a species' cotyledon programme. This information is then catalogued, processed, and converted into guidebooks, academic texts, training videos, and other educational materials; the purpose of which is to be used to educate affini in new ways to play with & tame their florets. The creation of new domestication techniques, both for practical use and pleasure/enrichment, is considered one of the Compact's most vital cultural imperatives, and as such, a great deal of work has been put into ensuring that new forms of play are not simply locked away behind individual floret-owner relationships and can be shared throughout the rest of the Compact.  

Data Gathering

The Neobureaucracy obtain information on xenosophont species through voluntary contributions from innumerable affini (and sometimes the cuties themselves, too!) throughout Compact space. Any affini, regardless of whether they own a floret of a particular race or not, is allowed to write in to the Neobureaucracy with suggestions, tips, or techniques that they have either utilised themselves or that they have reason to believe would work on a particular xenosophont species. Most of the time, these contributions are specific to a single species; as it is rare that any technique or activity crosses over perfectly to more than one species, what with a lot of types of play getting their value from cultural background or unique biology.   The clerks at the Neobureaucracy also operate an opt-in system where an affini can volunteer to have their hab data, as well as readings from relevant devices (such as the Haustoric implant of their pet/pets) recorded and sent to CNERD for processing. This data is then sifted through by artificial intelligence to filter out any uninteresting parts, and those where play happens between an owner and a floret/other sophont (independents are allowed to contribute too!) are then reviewed by a clerk. The clerk will usually only give them a cursory check to see if there's anything particularly novel occurring, but if something new or unusually exciting is observed, the scene will be gone over in thorough details and a write-up may be made of it for use in converting into educational materials at a later date.   Some examples of the kinds of things that the Neobureaucracy are commonly interested in are as follows:  
  • Information on unusual xenosophont sensitivities; particularly tactile ones, and particularly if pleasurable
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  • Explanations regarding romantic or intimate xenosophont customs
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  • Data on any unusual effects from classes of xenodrugs on individual species
  • Guides on how to expertly engage in play relating to a specific kink or fetish
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  • Information on culture-wide kinks or sexual proclivities within a xenosophont race
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  • Recountings of particularly good play scenes that made use of or involved a specific kink or fetish
  • Experimental data on baseline bonding responses within xenosophont species
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  • Descriptions of biologically natural & culturally developed bonding technqiues
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  • Specific breaking techniques for individual xenosophont races
  The above is only a short list of the types of information that the Neobureaucracy are interested in, and generally speaking, they are happy to receive contributions pertaining to any kind of activity which can aid in either the domestication of or bonding of a xenosophont, as well as those which can be employed for leisure and enrichment purposes after domestication has been achieved.  

Operational Goals & Activities

Beyond harvesting data from billions of willing volunteers, the Neobureaucracy also performs extensive in-house research using the florets of employed affini to iterate upon existing enrichment activities and techniques, as well as develop new ones. This pursuit represents by far the biggest portion of CNERD's activities, with anywhere up to 50% of time at the Neobureau or more being spent performing hands-on experimentation. Around another 20% is then spent cataloguing and archiving that, which leaves only 30% for everything else.   The remaining 30% of time at the Neobureaucracy is spent by clerks creating educational resources designed to make use of the data they have harvested. These commonly come in the form of training manuals, pamphlets, holovids, immersive VR programs, audio recordings, and are usually made available in just about any format you can think of. CNERD's partnership with the Office of Transitional Neoveterinary Archaeobureaucracy sees the vast majority of its materials translated into all other available mediums where possible; meaning that affini can peruse them in whatever their preferred format is.
"Some would say that the entire Neobureaucracy is just an excuse for affini to practise increasingly niche and ultraspecific forms of kink play on their florets. To anyone who believes that: I would say your first mistake is in assuming any affini needs an excuse to do that."
— Veleda Monotropha, 11th bloom, clerk at CNERD
  Affini wishing to access CNERD materials can usually do so via an app on their tablet, or by navigating directly to CNERD's outernet site in a browser. From there they can input search terms to allow them to specify what they are looking for, with possible ways of searching including but not limited to: by xenosophont species, by activity type (recreational or for domestication or both), sexual or nonsexual, scalable for multiple affini/multiple florets, whether it requires atomic compiler access, what xenodrugs are commonly used with it, the amount of time a session usually takes, and ratings by other affini/florets.  

Subdepartment of Affini Domestication

A subdepartment within the Neobureaucracy was opened around 10,000 years after its founding intended to deal specifically with the highly complex subject of relationships in which an affini has become a floret. On account of the affini's nature as highly complex highly bioengineered organisms, there exist a plethora of ways in which they can be both enriched and stimulated (either intellectually or physically), as well as domesticated; a substantial number of which are entirely unique to them.   In order to begin collecting data on various affini domestication and enrichment techniques, a subdepartment of the Neobureaucracy, known as the Subdepartment of Affini Domestication, was eventually opened; which functions essentially identically to the main Neobureaucracy but deals with all materials pertaining to affini-floret relationships where the floret is also an affini. The vast majority of workers in this subdepartment are affini who themselves own an affini floret, and it was originally founded by a group of such affini who started by getting together and sharing techniques for how they could make their beloved pets feel even better.

 

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