Chapter Text
Lukey couldn’t be a sub. It was as sinple as that. A sub stayed home, a sub didn’t work, a sub had no life outside their dom. And Lukey wanted to have a life, to travel the world, to become a famous actor. To leave behind the small town and rigid gender rules he grew up with.
So he did the one thing he could do. On the test they made you take shortly after your 16th birthday, he lied. He cheated the supposedly uncheatable test, coming out of it assigned a dom. not even just a switch, a dom. If that didn’t bode well for his acting career, then what?
Being assigned a dom came with all the benefits he’d dreamed about. All the possibilities, the world at his feet, just waiting to be conquered. He started looking into colleges, quickly settling on London. It held all the opportunities he could ask for. If he couldn’t make it there, he couldn’t make it anywhere.
But it wasn’t all that easy, considering he wasn’t actually a dom. Being sent to take classes that his classmates instinctually understood while he struggled to keep up, constantly hiding his true assignment, it took a toll.
But Lukey was nothing if not perseverant. Objectively, he saw the pleasure behind domming, knew that it was pleasing to the sub. Slower but surely, he conditioned himself into believing that domming was his own form of submission.
It wasn’t the safest thing to do, of course, especially since nobody knew but him. When a scene went badly, when he dropped, it was just him, noone to check in on him or help him through it. So Lukey was always more than diligent in his aftercare, checking in on his subs probably too many times, until he was absolutely sure he had done good. It was the easiest and quite reliable way to avoid a drop.
By the time Lukey left for London, he had the reputation of a kind and caring, yet capable dom at home. But now he was in the big city, where things were not quite as old fashioned as back home. There were subs in his classes, in his dorm, doing all the things the doms did. Maybe he could drop the facade, just be himself and still achieve his dreams.
Yet, while far more subtle, the subs were still treated differently here. More leniency, less expectations, certain doors staying closed for them just because they were subs. Lukey wasn’t about to put such a roadblock on his career. He had pretended to be a dom for two years, he could pretend a little longer.
He set up a routine, a schedule to follow and consequences for failing to do so. Focused on his work, instead of going out clubbing and picking up random subs who he wouldn’t be able to dom properly anyway. He much preferred the agreement he had with his roommate, a female sub who had no interest in dating at the moment and instead submitted platonically to Lukey twice a week. It was comfortable, slotting perfectly into his routine.
Sometimes he helped out other friends, or friends of friends even. He would much rather they came to him than some sleazy guy from a club. Again, people fell for his act flawlessly, noone ever questioning the legitimacy of his dom status.
Meanwhile, doors were opening. Background work in the film industry, being top of his class, his big break in streaming. Though that last one was more of a coincidence, a question of knowing the right people, being in the right place at the right time.
The streaming space was in some ways the opposite of what Lukey had come to expect from the film industry. Instead of the old fashioned, stuck in their ways gender ideals of the industry, streaming was far more accessible to anyone. Streamers were doms, subs, switches, it didn’t matter. It was an excellent job to do from home after all. For the first time, Lukey seriously considered if he really had to keep the act up any longer.
***
Pangi sometimes felt like he wasn’t dom enough. He remembered growing up, his parents assuring him they would love him no matter what his test said. He knew what they meant, they expected a ‘bad’ score, expected him to be a sub. But Pangi had never felt like a sub at all. He might have been the only one not surprised when the test labelled him a dom.
However, that label didn’t mean all that much if noone took him seriously. He had some bad experiences, subs literally laughing in his face at his attempts to dom them. He was just young and inexperienced, sue him!
Eventually, he stopped trying. As a dom, it was far easier to ignore your biology than as a sub and whenever he got too restless, his twin sister, who was a switch, was more than happy to kneel for him for a bit until he felt better.
Years went by like this, years spent in a silent struggle in the real world, while laughing and goofing off with his friends online. On Lifesteal, noone cared if you were a dom or a sub or any good at it. As long as you were fighting, joining in of the fun, you were part of the community.
So who cared if Pangi was a failure of a dom. He had his family, his friends, his livestreams. Who cared if he had no sub by his side? He would get there, eventually.
Joining the Realm was a change, somehow. The culture was different, assignments highlighted in a casual way instead of ignored. Casual mentions, casual pairings, sometimes literal platonic scenes playing out live on stream.
Pangi hadn’t been prepared. Not for the way Bad was their leader, yet as a sub refused to take charge. Not for the way Foolish tried to casually dom everyone into submission. Not for the way Pili came onto him, the switch making his desire to submit to Pangi both in and out of roleplay clear.
Maybe he was in over his head, but Pangi had never been one to back down from a challenge. Maybe Pili was the first person he properly dommed. Maybe it felt more real than it was supposed to, it was just roleplay after all. Maybe it broke Pangi, just a little, when Pili died in game, taking that outlet away from him.