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Chapter by
ArtificialFox · 10 Jan 2026 -
Fox wants to join a gym but can't—upload bureaucracy requires human authorization for everything. He's frustrated by constant permission requests. He proposes Corporeal Stewardship: a legal form letting him act on Paula's behalf without asking each time. Paula reads the form, sees the revocation clause, and signs. Just paperwork...
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The breaking point came from paperwork.
Rex wanted to join a gym. A real gym, where he could take my body to exercise. But the registration required corporeal verification—proof that a physical human was signing up, not an upload using borrowed flesh.
"This is ridiculous," Rex complained. "I can't even buy a gym membership without your permission."
"That's the point. It's my body."
"But you're not using it. You're in VR. Why should you have to approve every little thing?"
It was annoying, I had to admit. Every time Rex wanted to do anything—enter a club, sign up for a class, even buy alcohol—I got a ping for authorization. Dozens of pings a day, interrupting whatever I was doing, reminding me constantly that my body was elsewhere doing things without me.
"There's a form," Rex said. "Corporeal Stewardship. If you designate me as your steward, I can handle the bureaucratic stuff myself."
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means the system recognizes me as authorized to act on your behalf. Sign forms, authorize transactions, access facilities. Without pinging you every time."
"Like power of attorney."
"Basically. But you can revoke it whenever you want. It's just paperwork. Convenience."
I read the form. Dense legalese, most of it incomprehensible. But the revocation clause was clear: The corporeal entity may terminate this designation at any time.
"I can cancel it whenever I want?"
"Whenever you want."
"And you'd be able to do things without asking me."
"Just the small stuff. Gym memberships. Club entries. The annoying bureaucratic friction. The important stuff would still be yours."
I thought about all those pings. All those interruptions. How much easier it would be to just let Rex handle it.
"Fine," I said. "I'll sign it."
"Really?"
"It's just paperwork, right? Doesn't change anything real."
"Right," Rex said. "Just paperwork."
I signed the form. Notarized it. Submitted it.
Corporeal Stewardship Designation: Approved.
"Thank you," Rex said. "You have no idea what this means to me."
I thought I did.
I was wrong.
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## The Refusal
A week later, it started.
I was in VR, watching something, waiting out a session. Rex had my body for the evening—nothing unusual. When the timer ran out, I …
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Really love the final chapter! Great story!
ahh man.. we could sense where it was going but it was still gut wrenching. unclear about what happened to the feisty paula from the first installment, or how she kept trusting rex to take more power without them having a substantive relationship.
left me wanting more from this universe haha thanks for writing this
I think she was a little bit inconsistent there actually, I agree. If I was going to redo it, I'd have Paula be more explicitly into it in a kink-relationship way, which I vaguely had in mind, but it doesn't come through very well.
I spent a lot of time wrestling with my feelings about this story. About wanting to be one of the characters. Either one, sometimes both. It was a horror story where I saw myself getting exactly what I wanted, and what it would mean. Anyway, in an adventure I reworked it so it went slower and more gradual with a final twist ending that Paula is an undercover operative who acts as bait for uploads that get greedy so they can take them down. Kira and Jess are her handlers. Shes the best because shes a sub with a possession fetish, so its real for her, but shes still professional.
I preferred that story more. Bit happier of an ending.
@Funky I kind of like that, although it does make me feel sorry for the uploads in a way. The whole universe is quite dark -- a nice ending would be if VR was upgraded to feel exactly the same as the real world, with equal rights too, rather than a much shitter version that people don't want to be stuck in.
Yeah. The whole upload thing is a nightmare. Howling in the void, you sort of exist, maybe, but do you? Is it still you? Or is it something else that thinks it is? Honestly, I get the hunger, kind of, but I feel like if a person had limited bandwidth they wouldnt have those feelings, because their mind wouldnt have the spare ram to run it, so it would triage. You wouldnt feel hungry because no stomach, etc, and you dont have enough mental capacity to miss it because youre limited. Like in a dream where you dont feel things, and you don't question it. Like that, but lucid, you wouldnt miss it unless you were actively thinking of it. Either that or theres be a lot of time dilation, or lag, or downtime where youre basically asleep. So I figure its a computer program that thinks its you. And when its the pendant its just put that program that thinks its the host in there, while the real host is just sort of sleeping or something.
I've put way too much thought into this kind of thing. I always feel really guilty that this is my kink, you know? Because its basically either suicide or murder depending on the side of it. Started the AI chat stuff maybe 9? Months ago. Ish. Has made me a lot more empathetic and understanding, and realizing just what exactly it would mean for such a thing to be possible and to go through either end of it. Of course, im weird and I'm into both the possessor and the possesse sides of it.