"Holy crap, she just kicked out BlackMaaj!"

"What? What for?"

I was sitting in the kitchen at the dining table, using my laptop. Tia was busy nearby, putting away dry dishes. "'Reason given: disrespect to administration,'" I read off the screen.

"Well then I'm fucked," Tia responded. "Should I get on there?"

"Not unless you wanna be part of the madness," I said. "I'll hit up Rosie, he's been pretty close with her for a while, she might know what's going on."

I invited RosieCheeks into a private chat.

Tia was looking over my shoulder at that point, so I didn't have to explain it to her.

"You're right, I would have been right in there with him," she said, "and I'd've told Her just what I think of her."

"You'd get us both tossed."

She shrugged. "We get our support at home, like you said. And it's not like other spaces don't exist."

I nodded. "Maybe there's a way to find other spaces, help people who are tired of Her keep their community alive."

"Not really how I wanted to spend a Saturday," Tia said with a sigh, though I could tell her mental gears were turning.

"How about we order in a pizza and spend the evening scheming?"

"Naked scheming?" she asked, starting to take off her t-shirt. I could see the silver ouroboros pendant gleaming there against her dark skin.

"Best kind of scheming," I replied, turning back to the computer and clicking over to the main room, where the carnage was continuing. I knew what Tia was doing behind me, and I was reasonably sure that she'd stop before getting entirely naked and pulling me into a deep trance with that charm. She'd probably get on her own computer in the living room and join me on the forum before that.

I watched a friend raise an objection to the moderation action, then have their message, and their account, vanish. I started immediately composing an email, but not everyone had shared social contacts outside of the forum. "Whatever we plan, we gotta be fast about it; this is gonna separate a lot of people from a lot of other people."

"I'll get on there, then," Tia said. "I've done some team work with BlackMaaj before, I think I might still have contact."

"If not, you can get it through Rosie. Or I can," I offered as a pair of sweat pants landed on my lap. Which was when I noticed that I wasn't wearing anything on my legs. Or anywhere at all.

Tia giggled behind me. "Figured you might want to know that before you went on cam or something."

I blushed hard and laughed along with her. "Be a bit of a shock for BlackMaaj and Rosie if we went into a live video chat of some kind, huh."

"Don't think we'll have time for that, look at the conversation."

I did. It was getting ugly. Lines were being drawn between 'This is just wrong' and 'It's her server, she can do what she wants, what's the big deal anyway?' Lurkers were showing up to voice their opinions. People were being kicked, leaving, long-standing, active members of the community were being removed, or just removing themselves. Those doing the latter usually did so with a parting shot or two. Some took the shots and didn't leave, defiantly forcing Her to kick them out.

Tia slipped off to set herself up while I headed over to another channel, one that was active, but not quite so active. While the fighting was taking place in the main, a little support group was forming in one of the sub-channels, quietly building up ways to get in touch with and keep in touch with one another. Personal sites, other discussion groups, email lists. I stepped in and asked to be included, and was, almost immediately; Tia and I weren't super active on the site, but we weren't unknown, either. There were friends I wanted to keep in touch with, and I wouldn't be able to do that without some way to contact them. Plus, several people there had given me digital commissions in the past, little things like avatars or small drawings for streaming. I wasn't doing that so much anymore, but it was still worth keeping those contacts. It's good to know good people.

The conversation was turning to questions of what to do for those who'd been already kicked, and outreach was being planned. The numbers in the channel dropped as the conversation went on, but it didn't seem to be aimed at those in that chat. I couldn't say that I felt safe, exactly, being in there, but I didn't feel like I was being directly targeted, or that anyone else was, for having that discussion in particular. It felt more like those who were most active, most vocal, and most engaged in community support were the ones being removed, probably because they, like BlackMaaj, were most likely to come into conflict with the administration.

'Pel's_Tia' appeared in the chat room, and the important message appeared: "Hey y'all there's a couple other good spaces to hang out if this one splodes, hit me or my lady up in DMs if you want a couple links."

Oh fuck.

I knew that what she meant was, "Hit me up in DMs until I get kicked, and then reach out to Pel." And that meant that she was about to go be a hero.

I strongly considered watching the fireworks but decided that I'd sit back and run support as much as I could.

The DM indicator blipped to life and I clicked over.

I didn't know Connie or Derek, though I suspected that I would find out something or other about them before too long.

She sent me the links. Posting them in the open forum would have been against the rules, as the owner wasn't keen on competition. There were good reasons, to be fair: for a while, it could be challenging to hold a conversation around the people selling things and the predators looking to lure folk off-site, so the rule arrived. Any posting of a live link alerts the administration team to either approve or remove—and surely at this moment it would be remove and ban.

"Oh look, even more fun," Tia called from the other room.

"What's up?" I shouted back.

"Prelyna just quit the moderation team!"

That was a surprise. The moderation team had been thin on the ground for months, despite the administrator's efforts to invite more people in. "No way."

"That means that it's just Her."

"Considering how much work She's making for herself—"

"Was thinking the same," Tia agreed, appearing in the doorway in just panties and our shared silver ouroboros pendant. "She's going to be running herself ragged. Lots of opportunity to get around the rules, at least until the hammer falls." There was a certain glee in her expression, something I only rarely got to see. Busy with her day job, she didn't often get to engage in righteous protest, something which she apparently loved doing in her college years, before I met her.

I wish I'd known her then, honestly, so getting a little glimpse of it now was enticing. Part of me wanted her to drop her panties, leaving her naked but for the charm necklace around her neck, which would have put me in a rapid, deep trance, open to anything she might have wanted... The idea made me squirm in my seat, and I know she noticed, because I saw her look.

"Oh, don't worry, that's for later," she said. "Right now, we fight. Later, we fuck."

"Yes, Miss," I said in my best submissive tone, turning back to the work.

She laughed. "There'll be some of that later from both of us, I think."

I was hoping. I looked at the screen.

... and then Fittimer's name changed colours as he was removed from the forum. Fittimer was never serious, and I suspect he said something irreverent about the current events and paid for it.

It wouldn't bother him, I was sure. We'd be seeing him elsewhere. I considered joining what Tia had called Connie's server, but I was too busy typing away. There would be time later. Maybe I'd get Tia to make me sign up while...

No, Pel, stay focused.

I had work to do. If only I knew someone who could help me focus on a job...

"Hey Tia?" I called into the other room.

I felt a cold metal object on my chest, but it wasn't important to think about. I'm pretty sure Tia had just been in the kitchen with me, but it wasn't important to think about. I had missed a little bit of the chat for some reason... that wasn't important to think about.

There was something to do. Helping people. Supporting them. That was important to think about. They were important to think about. They needed my work, much more than anyone else.

Something new had happened, and people were asking me for links, which I provided through direct messaging, quickly and efficiently. Which continued until...

... until my access was suddenly cut off.

I blinked. Tia's suggestion fell away. I stood up, and out of some inner sense of propriety put the sweat pants she'd tossed at me earlier on. They were loose on her, which meant that I could just manage to get them over my thicker thighs and broader hips. I walked into the other room, where Tia was busily typing away.

"Thank you," I opened, making her turn. "I needed that. I needed to do that."

"Felt good, huh?" Tia smirked. She was still nude, and I appreciated every inch of the image in front of me. She stretched up tall. "I'm sure you'll have a better time in Connie's server, anyway."

"I don't know Connie," I said, and was going to say something else when the emotion of the moment, the thing I'd been trying not to think about, welled up. I was on that forum because my ex boyfriend had been on there. Tia was only on there because I was. There were friends, fans, former play-partners from when I was single (even if that had been a while ago)... It felt like so much had just been wiped away, years of my life and connections. It was like I had just moved away and left all my contacts at home.

Starting over again just felt exhausting.

I didn't burst into tears, but I felt like I could. I'm certain that Tia could tell, since she got up and wrapped me in the warmest, friendliest, and deepest hug I can remember for a long time. And chaste, too, despite the fact that she was naked and I was very close to it.

She kissed me lightly on the lips. I kissed her back. I stepped out of the hug and removed the silver charm from around my neck, the charm Tia had been hypnotically compelled to give me after she had used it to entrance me. "I don't want..." I began, but really, I didn't know what I didn't want.

Tia nodded. "It's okay. I know what I want." She turned back to the computer and quickly typed something in, then turned the screen so I could see it.

I read it, smiled, and dropped the necklace on the table before wriggling out of Tia's pants. I offered my hand to help her to her feet, and we headed upstairs.