Dielo (dee-eh-lo)

Content warning: Sexual exploitation. Article is PG level content.

Dielo

Dielo is a Virilo and currently a member of the prince's Sera Qadra.   Like all virilos, Dielo is skilled in many arts for leisure and relaxation even aside from a virilo's best known services. A virilo is a consumate specialist in all forms of pleasure.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

He is lean and lightly muscled, his physique smooth and firm. As a professional, he spends considerable effort to maintain his appearance. Every movement is graceful and calculated, and he will always be found in a posture which best presents himself and his master. (As a member of a sera qadra, he is a living objet d'arte, and his obligation is to public aesthetic as well as to personal service.)

Special abilities

...Yes.

Apparel & Accessories

He has a full case of Virilo Jewelry and a spectacular wardrobe.

Specialized Equipment

She twisted on the couch to the little cabinet behind her, with a row of tiny figures upon a shelf. She took one out, identifiable by its deep-black hair and perfectly dusky-gold skin, concealed only by a short kilt.
  Like all virilo, Dielo is attached to a chit. This figurine, approximately a finger's height, denotes a particular virilo and occasionally indicates even special talents or abilities. A virilo's chit is the equivalent to a title or deed, though the servant can be lent out (as to, perhaps, a potential business partner one is courting) without official transference.   Many wealthy households will display a chit or chits prominently, as much objects of conspicuous consumption as the virilo themselves.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Dielo, born to a farming family in eastern Mandoral, was discovered and selected at the age of six. He passed the usual tests for aptitude and consent, interviewing successfully when asked if he would like to comfort someone he saw who was sad, or if he would offer a hug to a friend (common assessments to identify a candidate willing to dedicate service to someone else's happiness).   Being found an appropriate candidate in both body and personality, he was chosen for training and placement. His parents were compensated—the honor is great, but many appreciate a financial gift as well—and proudly if tearfully sent him off to his new life and higher station.   He trained in music, dance, incense blending, and other arts until the age of fourteen, when his more advanced physical education began. Above all, he learned that his purpose was to support his master, giving ease after difficult days and finding purpose and worth in approval and appreciation.

Sexuality

Professionally accommodating.

Education

Like others of his profession, Dielo is educated in music, dance, and the art of conversation—particularly of listening with rapt attention. He is also skilled in scent blending (both for personal and for ambiant use) and massage. He exhibits consistent mastery in dressing to tastefully display his physique and all it can offer, as well as to draw attention to his master's wealth and status. Finally, of course, he is highly trained in all the arts of equisite physical pleasure, per any of several preferences.

Employment

With his training completed at the age of seventeen, Dielo was placed in his first service. This was in a noble household, where he performed occasional services for the master of the house but more often was an ostentatious luxury for guests and business negotiations.   He has been in three houses, and he looks forward to a longer placement with a single object of his ministrations, someone he can serve long and well enough to earn that golden ring ever dangled before virilo, love.   His newest placement within the royal palace is a thrilling opportunity. There is no higher station for a virilo than a royal sera qadra, and that achievement will always mark him, no matter where he goes in the future, as accomplished, prestigious, and desireable.

Mental Trauma

Aside from being torn from his family as a young child, taken from unconditional love by the lie that pleasing powerful men is the path to acceptance, trained to find worth in the approving gaze of others, taught to find value in the desire of others, coerced to accept exploitation as sophistication, indoctrinated with the need for protective approval, conditioned to see sexual desirability as power and sex as love, marked with a monetary price, passed and sold like a prized vase, left utterly bereft of worth and purpose without someone to sexually service—aside from that, no, nothing, why do you ask?   Who wrote this? Have someone more completely mark out the above. Perhaps an illustration to cover the damage. What rot. It's a privilege and opportunity anyone of his class should be grateful for.   Leave it. Someone has to say it.   Who is this? Who is in the catalog?

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Like countless others, Dielo serves in the hope of first becoming indispensible and then finding a deeper relationship that will allow him to stay on as something more than a servant, possibly even past his useful years as a virilo.

Likes & Dislikes

Music was a part of his training, as were dance, scent blending, and other arts, but music was one Dielo particularly enjoyed and excelled in. His singing voice is adequate, but not one of his primary skills. However, he still enjoys music and is pleased to have come to a master with an interest in it.

Relationships

Dielo

virilo and sera qadra (Vital)

Towards Kayvin

4
5

Dishonest


Kayvin

master and prince (Trivial)

Towards Dielo

-2
0

Frank


History

The prince told Pasiphae Jade to stop sending women to his quarters. The next day, she sent Dielo instead.   A virilo is an expensive gift, so it is possible Pasiphae Jade wished to purchase the displaced prince's good will. It's equally possible that she wished to place an intimate spy within his private quarters, to watch for any political actions he might take against the usurper despite her precautions.   The prince, who had only just dismissed nearly all of his sera qadra after his father's murder by a courtesan, was suspicious of Pasiphae Jade's gift but could not refuse it. (He tried, once, and there were brutal consequences.) Thus he barely welcomed Dielo into his retinue, and not into his...personal service, while Dielo depends entirely upon his success in pleasing in this position.

Shared Acquaintances

Yovela, the remaining member of the original sera qadra, despises Dielo and makes little secret of it. She is not clear about her reasons, however, and it may be more than just his connection to Pasiphae Jade.

Dielo

colleague (Important)

Towards Yovela

0
3

Honest


Yovela

colleague (Trivial)

Towards Dielo

-5
-5

Frank


History

She remained when the prince dismissed his sera qadra, the only one he trusted to remain near him. Then Dielo was forced upon them by Pasiphae Jade, thrust into the prince's quarters and sera qadra despite his connection with the woman who had murdered Kayvin's father and held his mother a frozen hostage. He is almost certainly a spy.   More, he is a willing, even eager participant in the twisted trade which provides living ornaments and pleasure on demand to the powerful. It may seem Yovela, also a member of the sera qadra, has little ground on which to disdain Dielo's position, but that isn't going to stop her.

Species
Age
19
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
royal palace of Mandoral
Gender
male
Eyes
green-gold
Hair
glossy jet black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
golden brown, the shade idealized by the Rideis
Height
5'7"
Weight
165 pounds

Pasiphae Jade fixed her eyes on Dielo. “Do you know our role? What service we provide to our masters?”   “We provide a respite from the trials and pressures of life, and pleasure—”   “Wrong.” Pasiphae Jade cut him off with a curt tone and gesture. “That is what you were taught to say. It’s what they think, and it is even what we may think, but it is not the truth.”   Dielo swallowed. “What is the truth?”   “We provide power.” Pasiphae Jade rose, her robe slipping from her shoulder with practiced ease. “We are prey to be caught, which makes them feel dangerous, or we are weaker souls to be protected, which makes them feel strong, or we are trophies to be displayed, which makes them feel envied or respected, but we are always a means to power.”   Dielo watched her move. What she said made sense, and it was not incompatible with all he had been taught about pleasing those who could give him a better life and a secure position.   But then there was always the ultimate enticement, hanging invisibly in the air for every virilo trained to be more than a common prostitute. “But there is love.”   “Is there?” Pasiphae Jade laughed. “Maybe there is, I can’t say. But when we use the same mechanism for power and for love, it’s possible the two are confused.”
Author's note: In no way is this story intended to romanticize or glorify sexual abuse and exploitation.   In my career I have organized multiple fundraisers to support anti-trafficking and anti-slavery organizations IJM and World Vision. My work often carries denser themes, and this is art to critique social wrongs, including in this case both overt and more subtle, socially-acceptable methods of pressuring victims into exploitation—though I know that may not be clear from the internal POV these worldbuilding articles take, which is why I clarify here.   Chattel slavery and human trafficking are still serious problems today. Please join me in fighting these! You can find one previous fundraiser here.

Comments

Author's Notes

Character portrait created with Artbreeder.   Chattel slavery and human trafficking are still serious problems today. Please join me in fighting these! You can find one previous fundraiser here.


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