Tales from the Jessica Files - After all, this is a love story... (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798987084229)

Jessica and I live in a world that The Department of Rules and Contracts controls, but it is not required to be under their purview. Most people who seek entry into this lifestyle are denied based on the testing criteria put forth by the DORCs. Many requirements are placed upon applicants.

The essential part of living this lifestyle is the consequences of violating the rules and even bigger ones for lying about them. The DORCs are not very forgiving and have been known to punish the $% & out of people for violating their contracts with the DORCs, not just with their partners. Lots of lawsuits there too.

By punished, I mean that the DORCs would first perform a standard audit of both parties, requiring supporting documentation for any activities during that contract's life. The DORCs would drag people through the court system and sue them for breach of contract if the audit was not to their liking. And it never was. You could never win.

It is ugly, painful, and completely unnecessary.

The best and saddest part is that the DORCs won nearly all cases because the contract was very explicit about the rules and regulations, roles, and expectations. If you violated them, you'd be subpoenaed and then dragged through the court system, which was always incredibly painful, especially in a smaller community like that under the DORCs.

The contracts had many ins and outs, but the most important thing when dealing with the DORCs was being absolutely transparent and infinitely honest. There was no reason to get into trouble unless you were a troublemaker. And some were, and you would hear about them, but their time would come.

Jessica and I took our relationship exceptionally seriously and did everything we could to follow the rules.

Given that we had to file weekly status reports with the DORCs, knowing that we would get audited if things were out of sorts, we lived by the contract.

And the vast majority of people under contract did so as well. It was paramount. As I mentioned before, you could never win. You could not succeed in this lifestyle if you didn't follow the rules set forth by the DORCs, let alone follow the rules set aside for you and your partner.

There are many different setups, but it always came down to two people who identified however they wanted; the DORCs didn't give a $% & about that, a Dom and sub (or D/s). We knew of subsections of this where the two people in the contract would "switch" from Dom and sub as they saw fit. And the DORCs didn't care.

They just wanted everyone to follow the same set of rules. And that even was true for people who contracted as Dom/slave. I understood that, but I didn't get it.

One of the contractual agreements between two parties is made between a third party, the DORCs. The D/s were bound to one another, but both were bound to the DORCs. You didn't have to uphold yourself to your partner, but you sure as $% & best to the DORCs if you wanted to succeed.