Kasey was excited. In between his Thaumatechnic creations over the past few months, he had been looking for an auction to go to, somewhere that he could buy a slave. He'd made large amounts of money, and didn't use it all - and frankly, he was getting tired of the complete lack of sexual connection he and his wife had.<br/><br/>He really didn't know what she wanted. He'd tried a few kinky approaches, but she'd either frowned at him for making such an improper comment, or seemed not to notice it at all. He was getting very sexually frustrated, and he desperately wanted someone he could use, someone who would truly<em>belong</em>to him, and do what he told them to, without questions, without judgement. He knew that Marion was attractive, even beautiful, but he was also convinced that she had no interest in the sort of sexual excitement he wanted - that she was far too "vanilla," as the sex psychologists called it.<br/><br/>And tonight was one of the biggest auctions of the year. Kasey had been scouring the Technet reports, but hadn't found one that looked good yet. But this one, this one looked to be over a hundred auctions, with some very interesting slaves on the teaser list. He still hadn't settled on what he wanted to buy - he was aware that it was even possible that he might not find anything interesting enough - but at least he had to try. He wanted a pet to own, to use, to play with. He was getting tired of not having<em>any</em>sex at all.<br/><br/>He spent the morning getting ready, and getting dressed. The semi-permanent slave market was a dangerous part of town, so Kasey started building a light armor suit with some special weapons he'd designed himself. While he knew that there were some nominal rules at the auctions, he'd also found some reports of less-savvy visitors being enslaved, killed, or worse...<br/><br/>His outfit looked mostly like a high-class suit, although it had an unnatural sheen of pale blue around the fringes. It would stop most non-magical attacks, prevent him from being treated like a clueless tourist. And when that wasn't enough, he'd also added two weapons - a highly visible common-model pain/stun lance on his left hip, and a far more lethal one-shot device that he'd created tucked under his right wrist. He wasn't completely sure that it would work, but even if it<em>didn't</em>reduce the target to unthinking protoplasm, he was pretty sure that it would take them out of the fight regardless. He was dimly aware that it was probably too lethal to be legal, but he also knew that thanks to his job and class, he had a legal waiver that would essentially protect him if it could be proven that his use was purely in defense.<br/><br/>He didn't realize that it was their anniversary. He only asked Marion to come with him because she was always nagging him about taking her out to events. While he wasn't sure that she'd enjoy this sort of event, he was fairly certain that she'd be downright<em>pissed</em>if he went out to an event<em>without</em>her. So he'd told her that they had a gala to attend, something special, and she had lit up and dashed off to the beauty salon almost immediately.<br/><br/>Finally ready, he checked the time; it was nearly noon. He knew the auction was to start at 11 AM, but he also knew that early items would be a little on the slow side, and certainly on the dull side. He had no interest in buying nonsapient lizards or hive-thinking bee-queens, although he would admit that the latter at least looked interesting from a distance...<br/><br/>No, the auction wouldn't get really lively until around 1 PM, when they started getting into the higher-ticket items. Kasey intended to be there before then -<em>fashionably late</em>, as his wife would call it.<br/><br/>He looked around, then connected to the house network. "Marion? It's time to go, where are you?" he called, looking around the main lobby of their house.