Matt Doyle has a new lesbian sci fi book out:
New Hopeland City may have been built to be the centerpiece of the technological age, but some remnants of the old world still linger. The tools of the trade have changed, but the corruption remains the same, even in the criminal underworld …
When PI Cassie Tam and her girlfriend Lori try to make up for their recent busy schedules with a night out at the theatre to watch the Tech Shift performer Kitsune, the last thing they expected was for Cassie to get a job offer. But some people are never off the clock, and by the end of the evening, Cassie has been drawn into a mundane but highly paid missing pet case. Unfortunately, in New Hopeland City, even something as simple as little lost dog can lead you down some dark paths.
Until now, Cassie wasn’t aware that there even was a rabbit hole, let alone how far down it goes.
Excerpt
“I’m sorry, but did you want to get changed before we speak? We’d be happy to leave the room while you get ready. It must be hard work performing in both the TS gear and a kimono thick enough to house projectors without them moving out of line with each other, even if they are the smaller, lightweight models.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Kitsune sighs. “There’s a wireless motion detection system in each hand too,” they add, waving two metallic, clawed paws. “You’ll note that my tails are missing. They don’t yet make multi-tailed suits, you see, and the number is important within the folklore, so we had to find other solutions. The projector tucked under the obi sash keeps the back open nicely, and it allows movement, both in animation and in the actual device, but it’s a bit stronger than the main ones.”
“Meaning that it’s heavier,” I reply.
“Indeed. The way the system works is identical to the tail guidance in regular suits though.”
I frown and Lori clarifies, “Regular Tech Shift gear uses two small wireless touchpads to control tails, one for the bottom half, and one for the top half. They’re embedded in the hand rest of Ink’s front legs. For hybrid-style gear, they usually sit inside the thumb of each hand. It’s the same concept in each one, but animal-style gear allows for bigger movements, while hybrid gear measures micro movements.”
“Which would be rather fiddly, given the level of movement that I require. These are built into the paw pads and are set to register larger movements so that the tails can move in time with the different dance routines and my more flamboyant gestures,” Kitsune explains, demonstrating one of the hand flourishes from the show. They pause then and chuckle. “Ah, but I’m rambling. I am afraid that changing is, contractually speaking, impossible. Will my appearance be a problem?”
“No, I’m used to Tech Shifters…”
Lori laughs and cuts in with, “You are sonot used to us yet.”
I laugh quietly, despite myself. The miserable old loner that still lives in my head says I should be angry about that; I’m working after all. But the part of me that was enjoying the evening is far more prominent and reminds me that this was supposed to be Lori’s evening too. I can allow her a small jab or two on that basis. “My early experiences with Tech Shifters were notpositive,” I say, addressing Kitsune. “I’m getting better, though. What do you mean by ‘contractually speaking,’ if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Not at all. It is essentially as it sounds. The Kitsune brand is a joint venture between myself and Kevin, and there is a lot of paperwork involved dealing with how the whole thing is to be played out in every mundane situation that you could imagine. What it means is that I can boss Kevin about and make him my dogsbody as much as is required, but at the same time, I must respect his rather brilliant marketing strategies. Part of that means that the mystery of the Kitsune’s true identity is to be protected at all times. As such, I do not meet with anyone without my professionalface on. It seems a little strange, I know, but he was previously a historian of certain old-world sporting brands by trade and thought that applying a degree of what he called kayfabewould help give the whole thing a new edge. I can’t say that he was wrong.”
“So, are you Kitsune when you’re around family too?” Lori asks. “Or partners?”
“Oh, I have no time for partners, not with mytouring schedule. With family, I can be myself, though Kevin did insist upon them signing a gagging order to prevent them from revealing my identity to anyone who hadn’t signed a similar contract. You should have seen my mother’s face when he brought that up. I honestly thought that the rolling pin she was holding was going to be put to nefarious use. Outside Kevin, even my oldest friends do not know who resides beneath the mask.”
“That must be hard to maintain,” I say.
“Oh yes, I have cover stories and everything. It’s somewhat akin to witness protection if television is to be believed. As far as most know, I am simply a touring stagehand for the great performing fox spirit.”
I nod. “Kitsune, as pleasant as this is, I assume there was a reason that you wanted to see me?”
“Oh yes, of course. I saw the news coverage of your recent success with that Gary Locke character,” they say, and Lori flinches slightly. “As far as local detectives go, there are plenty of them about, but you are certainly the most well regarded. I have actually been in town for a week now, and I am due to remain here for a further two. I am afraid that, over that initial period, I was subject to a crime of the nature I am led to believe the police do not take overly seriously.”
“The police wouldn’t be happy about not knowing your identity, regardless of the crime. If it’s one that they won’t usually touch, that doesn’t leave many possibilities. What are we talking about?”
“It is rather lonely on the road,” they sigh wistfully. “A few months ago, we stopped in Toledo, and I was awoken from a post-performance nap by a clattering outside the tour bus. I wandered out, expecting to find a fan or two hunting autographs, and instead found this charming little thing skulking around the bins. I named him Fish.”
Kitsune produces a phone from their kimono, loads up a photo, and passes it over. It shows a snow white American Shepherd dog sitting on one of the tour bus seats and giving the camera a suspicious look. It’s too big to be a puppy, but certainly not big enough to be fully grown.
“You named your dog Fish?”
“It seems strange, doesn’t it?” Kitsune laughs. “There’s a reason, though.” They take the phone back and enlarge the picture, revealing that the dog’s tail is about half the length it should be. It was easy to miss at normal size because the single colouring made it seem like it was tucked under its legs.
“When I was young, my parents had some rosetail betta fish. One of them was pure white, and it had a habit of nibbling through its tail fin. When we took Fish to the vet, they said that the tail damage, judging by the angle of the marks, was likely self-inflicted. I couldn’t remember what my parents called the fish, so I just stuck with Fish.”
I nod. “And I assume that Fish is now missing?”
“I am afraid so. It happened yesterday, during the early hours. I was woken by a loud bang and found that Fish was gone, and the tour bus door was open.”
“Could Fish have run away?”
“It would have been difficult for him to open the door, but not impossible. I don’t think that he would have run, though. We were lifelines for each other, you see. He kept me company during the day, and when he had nightmares, I comforted him. If he was spooked, he would usually run and hide near my bed. I heard something else too, a van door being slammed shut maybe? And then an engine.”
“So you’re thinking that he was stolen.”
“Honestly? I don’t know. Do you think that you could take the case? How much would it cost?”
The animals we become – The origins of the Tech Shifting concept
By Matt Doyle
The Fox, The Dog, and
The King is the direct sequel to Addict,
and the second book in The Cassie Tam Files. Now, I know that people say you
shouldn’t read reviews of you work, but I can’t help it. The truth is, I enjoy
seeing what people enjoyed in the books. One thing that that really made me
smile with Addict was how much people embraced the concept of Tech Shifters.
If you’re not familiar with the term, it represents a group
of people who use elaborate metal exoskeletons to roleplay as animals. People
have all sorts of reasons for doing so, ranging from jobs to embracing a form
of pup play. The process to obtain the gear is quite a long one, with a full
psychological evaluation taking place before the process begins in earnest,
followed by an operation to insert ‘plugs’ along the Tech Shifter’s spine and
head so as to allow the suits to lock into place, so it’s not something that
people can enter into on a whim.
Since readers were interested in how the suits work, I
decided to add some back matter to the The Fox, The Dog, and The King in the
form of an illustrated guide to how the TS Gear is operated. It’s designed to
be read as though you were a potential Shift Source Ltd customer considering
whether or not to go through the process, so I’m hoping that will be pretty
interesting for everybody. In keeping with this theme though, I wanted to speak
a little today about what inspired Tech Shifting, and how it integrates into
society at large in the Cassie Tam universe. So, let’s begin with the
formulation of the idea.
I have been a fan of shapeshifters ever since I was a kid. I
loved werewolf stories growing up, and I still enjoy them now. With the rise of
Urban Fantasy too, I was very quickly introduced to a whole myriad of different
visions of how shapeshifters would work and act. It always fascinates me to see
how different creators integrate things like that into their worlds, and I
wanted to do the same when I had the chance.
Though I knew that this was a sci-fi/crime noir series, I
realized very quickly that I could make the concept fit pretty easily,
especially if I worked from within my own experiences. You see, I’ve been a
furry since the 90’s, so my mind went immediately to fursuiting. To fit with
the technology-infused aesthetic of New Hopeland City, all I had to do was to
integrate the same thinking to costume work. The great thing with that is that
it’s already happening to a degree. For one, we have Beauty of the Bass, a UK
fursuiter who has a speaker system built into their fursuit, allowing them to
play music and voice clips during performances. Then there’s Kaiborg Studios,
who make fursuit heads with fully animated LED display faces. I love the
innovation in both those examples, and wanted to emulate that thinking in some
way.
So, I came up with the idea of suits that are entirely
tech-enhanced. The idea was to take the concept of stilt based fursuits and
quad-suits, and figure out how they would work if they were built in a tech
focused society. As you’ll see in the back matter in the book, the suits make
use of a lot of different things, ranging from hydraulic safety systems to
wireless tail control that the wearers operate from within the hand sections.
In many ways, TS Gear is set up in a very similar way to the costumes that we
have now, but with some future-modern trappings to enhance the experience.
The question is, how does it all fit within the world shown
in the books? Well, New Hopeland City is credited as being the birthplace of
Tech Shifting, so they got to see the system evolve into what it is now. And
there really was some evolution required. When the suits were first released,
anyone with a big enough wallet could buy one. The problem with that was that,
while most buyers were perfectly reasonable people, some took them on for
nefarious reasons. What happens if you give a metal werewolf suit to someone
with murder in mind? I’m sure you can guess. Those early days were scary for
those in the city, which is why there is such a focus on psychological testing
prior to purchase now.
With the system now far more workable, Tech Shifting has
actually become pretty common place. The most prominent Tech Shifter character in
the books so far is Lori Redwood, Cassie’s client in Addict and now girlfriend
in The Fox, The Dog, and The King. She uses a quadrupedal TS suit to roleplay
as a black panther named Ink. For her, Tech Shifting is a way to escape from the
stresses and troubles of her normal life, and represents a non-sexual form of
pet-play for her. This isn’t the only reason to wear the suits though. In this
book, we meet Kitsune. They wear a bipedal suit inspired by Japanese folklore
and have created a successful career by performing a one-person variety show
based around the concept. Meanwhile, once book three comes out, we’ll also get
to meet Donal O’Brien, who runs the New Hopeland Police Department’s Tech Shift
Unit and uses a modified suit that’s built for combat.
With hobbyists, lifestylers, performers, and other
professionals all taking to the idea of Tech Shifting, the system has become
one of the things that the city is most synonymous with. It makes sense too, I
think, as the idea of being able to become something other than what we are has
appealed to people for centuries. We may not ever be able to physically shift
form, but with the way that technology advances, TS Gear isn’t an unrealistic
potential option.
Author Bio
Matt Doyle lives in the South East of England and shares his home with a wide variety of people and animals, as well as a fine selection of teas. He has spent his life chasing dreams, a habit which has seen him gain success in a great number of fields. To date, this has included spending ten years as a professional wrestler, completing a range of cosplay projects, and publishing multiple works of fiction.
These days, Matt can be found working on far too many novels at once, blogging about anime, comics, and games, and plotting and planning what other things he’ll be doing to take up what little free time he has.
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