The Cyberkink Sideshow by Ophidia Cox

never even known she was into them. She didn’t know how she might feel about this when she got home, or tomorrow when she was back at work, but it felt good and that was enough to go on for now.
    “I lived my life as two different people before I started this sideshow. Only the person I was in private with the people I trusted enough to reveal myself to, and at taboo public events, where I wore a mask like you do now, was the real one. The other was a flimsy cardboard facade. It was liberating to ‘come out’ as it was, and be true to who I was for a living.”
    Victor paused. He looked at Sylvia, and she wondered if he could read anything from the expression her mask hid. “I understand that some people like having that facade, that it makes them feel secure, like a hole to hide in when the world seeing your all is too much. I respect your decision to keep the mask on if you never want me to know who you might be in your other life.”
    Sylvia glanced at the proceedings in the arena below. She leaned toward him, resting her weight on her elbow. “You’re not going down there so Vaughn can whip you tonight.” Sylvia took hold of his wrist and gently extended his arm behind his head, where she manacled it to the scaffolding with her police handcuffs. “Because I’m your master for now, and I want you all for myself.”
    “My dear lady,” he replied with a sideways glance and a lecherous chuckle. “I’m afraid to say I do think you’re being exceptionally greedy, as there is rather a lot of me, and certainly plenty enough to go round had you been willing to share.”
    Sylvia slid her knee up and over his waist. The metal frame of the sun lounger groaned in protest as she sat astride him, encompassing his great girth with her knees, sliding her hands over his chest and reveling in how big and soft he felt.
    “Victor.” Sylvia hesitated. “Are you with anyone? Seriously, I mean? Is it you and Vaughn, or you and the Hermaphrodite Twins?”
    “The Hermaphrodite Twins? They’re great fun and game for anything, but they’re more interested in each other than anyone else. Vaughn’s the best dom I know, and he’s a genius at inventing things. He comes up with all that electrosex stuff. You know the act Marvin does? All Vaughn’s ideas and inventions. He likes to test them on me, but to tell the truth, he’s more interested in the ideas and the results than having a relationship. He wouldn’t understand a concept like monogamy because it’s important to him to test his creations on as many people as possible to gauge how effective they are.”
    “So you’re not involved with anyone?” Sylvia stroked one finger down his cheek and across under his double chin. His was an unconventional form of beauty, but she doubted there’d be a dearth of appreciators of it in such an environment as this. “I can’t believe that.”
    “I’m not as straightforward as you might think.”
    “You going to explain how?”
    “I’m a switch, for a start.”
    “A switch?”
    “A switch. You know. There’s dominance and submission. Most people do either one or the other. Purists argue that if you’re a switch it’s not real BDSM, and sneer at you. I’m ninety percent sub and ten percent dom, which means most of the time I love to play just the sort of games you’ve been treating me to. But every so often I get the urge to play the game from the other side for a change.”
    “I don’t see what’s wrong with that,” said Sylvia. “Surely there are other switches you can find with the ratio the other way round.”
    “Then there’s the other thing.”
    Sylvia glanced away from him. The crowd below had changed their motion, and people cleared the way for two policemen to pass. More costumed performers? Another act? One of them pointed at the scaffolding.
    Victor frowned, but his expression slowly changed to amusement. “Oh, what the hell’s Vaughn thought up now?”
    “Oh, shit!” said Sylvia. They weren’t