Ménage à trois

 

MÉNAGE À TROIS

An unusual story from the year 2042 by strzeka (11/24)

 

It was five years to the day since Noah Thorne joined Oliver Ashford and Harry Hargrove and a celebration was called for. The vote halfway through breakfast went two for, one against. Oli promised to get the smokes, Harry some wine or beer and Noah himself was merely instructed to wear his finest, including his new socket with the short fake leg stumps which the other two enjoyed seeing. Noah thought it ridiculous to first divest himself of his stumps at their insistence only for them to shortly recommend a socket which included two of them but he had to admit that they made him more stable and presentable.

 

Harry could easily manage a couple of boxes of plonk. Oli was still having problems with his peg arm, the clunky rubberised device he relied on to haul himself around in order to avoid damaging his artificial arm. Bringing home a few grammes of mary jane was no problem, unless you counted queuing for it. But it was only Wednesday, so there probably would not be the same demand as at the weekend.

 

They all left for work at the same time, as on most days. They boarded a tram in front of their building. Noah alighted first and made his way to his workplace at CRAC, the climate reimbursement advice centre. Harry and Oli continued across town to the borough’s recently constructed rationing administration compound. Their job was to provide a human voice for distraught citizens who had difficulties making their rations last. They made no decisions themselves. They merely relayed information provided by A.I., generated in accordance with access to data on the size of the customer’s household, age, nutrition requirements and availability and more. Most of the customers were older citizens continually frustrated by being able to afford extra food but being disallowed it. The general national consensus was that they had helped caused the situation. Let them suffer its consequences with everyone else.

 

No‑one could remember who had genuinely originated the plan to disable themselves. The three of them had been enthusiastic wannabe members of Aleph, a public forum for amputees based in Palestine but for all friendly territories. Oliver, Harry and Noah had all corresponded with quite a few legless men both in Palestine and further afield. Messages could be sent in either Arabic or Roman script. Artificial intelligence transcribed and translated it automatically. Most forum members sought only to gain more knowledge about amputation of their lower limbs to the most extreme degree. Gazan amputee members were always willing to describe their experiences since their amputations a decade ago. Being confronted with young men whose love of life was contagious, wannabes in Europe and beyond gradually altered their perceptions of the ideal body shape. There were many videos of handsome young Gazans together en route to drink coffee and smoke, swinging torso stumps between gloved hands. Some had vestigial leg stumps, useless for prosthetic use. Photos of their naked young bodies, genitals demurely covered, were collected and shared with admiration.

 

That was in the past. Nowadays Oli and Harry both wore identical thick rubber torso sockets of recycled vehicle tyres, sturdy and broad enough to be stable and secure, with a gently curving base to allow easier movement. The base of Harry’s socket compensated for the presence of his short thigh stumps. The sockets were waterproof and provided easy access via a stiff flap for access to private parts for urination. They squeaked on linoleum flooring when damp. Once settled at their work stations, Oli retrieved his artificial arm with its rubber artificial hand and stashed the peg arm in his backpack. Headphones on, display on. He activated his mike and began the day’s flood of advice to hungry callers. From where he sat, he could see through a dozen perspex shields to where Harry sat, already mired in an argument about the impossibility of cooking food when the timetable for the allocation of electricity was never accurate.

 

The work of advisor was demanding and sometimes draining. They were permitted to cut callers off if they became abusive or accusatory. There were internet forums galore with advice about rationing and recipes for the simple ingredients available. If the weather was not too violent, a good harvest of root vegetables might be had. Peas and beans usually had a difficult time of it, not tolerating long periods of drought. Chicken was apportioned twice a week and just under half a kilo of pork mince. Dried spaghetti and macaroni were always available, although they required careful cooking in order not to dissolve. Oli ploughed on through the list of callers, offering commiserations and advice on how to cope in future.

 

He and Harry both found a few seconds to place an order for their marijuana and alcohol. They ought to be available at the collection centre on the ground floor by the end of their shifts. The supply of intoxicants was not rationed but had to be ordered and paid for immediately upon collection. Harry ordered two three litre boxes of English white wine, ten degrees proof. The marijuana was what it was. Sometimes it was quite potent stuff. You took what you could get.

 

The huge advantage of working at the rations office was the guaranteed availability of produce for staff lunches. At twelve, the entire cohort of advisors stopped for an hour’s lunch break. Their meals were assembled from exactly the same ingredients available to everyone but there was always a little meat or chicken and a little effort was made to ensure the food was prepared properly. Harry was ahead of Oli in the queue, waiting and chatting with another legless guy standing on rocker feet attached to his socket. He preferred using a pair of boxing gloves to cushion his hands. There were enough limbless advisors of all genders that various imaginative adaptations were a common sight and no‑one passed comment on a legless man wearing boxing gloves in the queue for his lunch. The job was ideally suited to the severely maimed, requiring nothing more than a human voice and superhuman patience.

 

For his first two years with Oli and Harry, Noah did not work, at least not for the state. He was initially classed as too disabled to be able to serve his fellow citizens and was content to remain at home where he created magnificent vistas of Utopia with AI and used the tiny digital images as inspiration to produce meter‑wide paintings which he sold online for a handsome profit. There was an enormous backlog of artists materials still available, due to the simple fact that most people no longer had the time for creative recreation.

 

Noah was indeed severely disabled. He loved his stumpless lower torso and regarded his last two amputations as the best thing which had happened to him. He had started his adventure as a teenager, staging a ridiculous scenario with two other like‑minded friends, Charlie Merriweather and George Winslow, who dared him to go ahead with his outrageous plan. After downing a dangerous number of painkillers followed with half a bottle of vodka, his feet were severed with a chainsaw. Doctors saw only the injury and repaired it. No‑one in officialdom ever enquired how such a misfortune had transpired. Noah and his friends took note and over the next years arranged apparent accidents in which they lost various limbs.

 

Charlie had been a bilateral amputee missing both hands for almost as long as Noah had been missing his feet. He wore voluntary closing claws, vicious‑looking objects which frightened off potential girlfriends and attracted other young men seeking to distinguish themselves somehow. Charlie rode a sixteen hundred cc motorbike, adapted for use with his claws. George acted as a catalyst, encouraging his friends to experience ever more extreme amputations. He had not undergone any himself, not yet.

 

Noah used a pair of conventional prostheses for two years after his initial maiming. Exoskeletal was what they were called. They looked like his lower legs but the ankles could not bend and the feet were short things, difficult to balance on. Hinges served as knees and the legs gripped his thighs with the aid of leather sockets which he had to lace up. Despite the inconvenience, Noah enjoyed the challenge of walking on heavy artificial legs but did not feel himself disabled in the way he wished. He imagined himself walking on a single artificial leg and booked two further amputations. Four months later, he left rehab on crutches with a rigid rubber stubby on his left stump from which the knee had been disarticulated. His right leg stump was merely a fleshy dome at his pelvis with a truncated remnant of his femur remaining.

 

Elective amputations were, naturally enough, booked through Aleph and profits went to the Gaza reconstruction fund. There were several surgeons around Europe who volunteered their services. The ‘clinics’ provided amputations, food and lodging for two or three weeks but nothing more. It was up to the amputees to equip themselves with whatever prostheses they wanted and, not unexpectedly, a small number of independent rehab and prosthetic services associated with Aleph had quickly sprung up. Most provided perfectly serviceable prostheses, printed in situ from recycled plastic and reusing components from discarded artificial limbs.

 

Noah loved his thick rubber stubby but found using crutches to be inconvenient. George directed him to a series of videos uploaded by a thirty‑something man who had lost both legs from the pelvis. He ‘walked’ in a thick rubber bucket which surrounded his midriff and used gloved hands to swing his torso forward. Other videos showed him balancing on a skateboard, lying back in a recumbent handcycle made from recycled bike parts and wheeling himself around at home on a wheeled trolley. The guy himself was masculine, articulate and upbeat and Noah was gradually persuaded that the loss of his remaining thigh would be the best way to ditch crutch life. He had relied on his rubber bucket for eleven months, after a five month recovery in a wheelchair. He considered himself lucky to still be able to sit and balance on his minimalist femur stumps and he could excite himself by attempting to knead his genitals with them.

 

Both Oli and Harry had always influenced the other. They had known each other since primary school and were inseparable friends until they left school. Oli had been infatuated with the idea of wearing prosthetic limbs and Harry came round to the same way of thinking. As fresh school‑leavers, they were confronted with the formidable task of finding employment. So many avenues were blocked or completely removed thanks to artificial intelligence. Despite the dearth of eager young workers to do simple manual jobs because of emigration and the low birth rate, there were jobs in the service industries with generous quotas reserved especially for the physically handicapped.  It was the government’s way of compensating for the cessation of disability pensions to those under fifty. Oli and Harry dared each other to have amputations in order to take advantage of the deal. Oli was the more daring and intentionally damaged his lower left arm seriously enough with a rotary saw to cause amputation.

 

Since recovering, he had worn a variety of passive hands and hooks, all printed as part of long sockets into which he inserted his stump. After landing his present employment, he had been eligible to be fitted with a subsidised artificial arm and steel hook. Harry had been less adventurous and opted for a simple above knee amputation. He was provided with a thick rubber socket, a kind of sheath to protect the stump, to which different types of prosthetic leg might be attached. Shortly after he was walking on a peg leg crafted from a wooden crutch and several old‑fashioned wooden coat hangers. It was reliable enough but it was too heavy and looked terrible. Harry was dissatisfied and looked to Oli and George for guidance. Both friends knew they were at the mere outset of their plunge into limblessness and continually planned new lifestyles available to the severely disabled.

 

A year later, Harry had a second amputation to match the first. He was left with two handsome short stumps a third the length of his thighs and began his career as a hand‑walker. Oli was intensely envious of his friend’s transformation. There was only one thing for it. He would go one better and have double disarticulations from the pelvis. He would sit in a rigid bucket and propel himself with his remaining hand and some kind of peg arm which he could wear on his stump. Now he had been legless for a year and half. Harry could jiggle the remnants of his legs but Oli had nothing. He found his limblessness ecstatic. There was deep satisfaction in still being able to feel his legs and toes, to perform all kinds of calisthenics with no outward indication of movement. His rubber socket almost reached his armpits. It was smooth and cool each morning, uncomfortable and sweaty each evening. Without it, Oli could remain upright only when seated on a soft surface into which his torso stump could sink.

 

The celebration was modest but enjoyable. The smokes were relaxing and the wine was slightly tart but quite acceptable. Harry and Oli were almost naked, having shed their torso sockets as soon as they arrived home. Only Noah remained encased in rubber. He balanced on the floor facing his friends relaxing on the low legless sofa which was easy for them to climb onto. The usual topic on conversation unavoidably reared hits head once more so they discussed the possibility of further transformations. Harry had recently become enamoured of Charlie’s stunning claws but stated that he would prefer to have curved hooks. The claws were OK for riding a motorcycle, obviously, but they did not seem to be well suited to everyday life. Harry wanted to continue using a traditional keyboard at work and claws were less than the optimal shape. The trio discussed the pros and cons of different prosthetic hands and hooks, different lengths of stump. Oli removed his artificial arm in order to display his stump. It was a handsome truncated forearm, sturdy, muscular and manly. Harry was further tempted but not enough to commit. He was interested to know if Oli felt that his artificial arm was useful, enough so that a second prosthesis would not present a problem.

 

Oli often considered having his right hand off to make himself symmetrical again. He was prepared for the inconvenience of exchanging two artificial arms for peg arms with rubber tips which he would use like crutches to haul his torso stump around. That would be as far as he would go with his transformation. He had seen the difficulties involved in manipulating artificial arms for above‑elbow amputees and believed he would prefer identical forearm stumps. He admired their appearance and their utility. Harry suggested they might synchronise their arm amputations. Recover at the same time. He was sure that if one of them acted prematurely, the other would shortly follow suit. They might as well act together. From that evening on, both men often thought about the practicalities of wearing hooks at work, peg arms in public and sporting naked stumps at home.

 

George turned up unexpectedly on the following afternoon. He arrived on foot although he owned a small electric car. The reason was soon clear enough. He brought two bottles of gin as a belated gift, having heard from Charlie that the guys had celebrated during the week. George assumed it had been someone’s birthday and being ready at all times for any excuse for a party especially with amputee friends, he thought two bottles might hit the spot. One to test that evening, one as a gift for the birthday boy. Noah laughed at seeing him standing outside the door with a bottle in each hand and a shit‑eating grin on his face. Oli and Harry were naked in bed together but quickly slid into their sockets when Noah reported that George had come around with booze. Oli knew exactly what would happen. George was insatiable concerning discussions about limblessness. Fortunately he and Harry had been hatching ideas about converting to bilateral hook use and were more than ready to hear George’s considered opinion on it, although the outcome was obvious from the very outset. George would encourage them to go ahead with their plans. Of that there was no doubt.

 

There had been no birthday. Noah explained how they had also grabbed the chance for a midweek break. Any excuse was enough. George was bemused by having bought a bottle of gin for nothing. He quickly turned the subject of conversation to the inevitable and decided to discover how Noah had come to know the others and eventually move in with them. Noah had told his story many times and had whittled it down to the bare basics. He had wanted to be an amputee. More precisely, he wanted to use artificial limbs. They were the attraction and his overwhelming fetish. His first below‑knee amputations allowed him to experience wearing a pair of lace‑up prostheses with leather thigh corsets. The legs had belonged to another amputee, possibly two. They were newly refurbished when Noah took possession of them. They were heavy with completely rigid wooden feet and ankles and they caused him to rock from side to side when he walked. Next he decided to request knee disarticulations but his surgeon recommended above‑knee amputations as they were quicker to heal and the prostheses would provide a better body image.

 

Noah was persuaded and learned to walk on two above‑knee legs which were little more than steel pylons attached to printed sockets. The knees were mechanical but very reliable. Noah occasionally wore only one prosthesis and swung himself about on long crutches. It was the crutches which had attracted Oli’s attention and after sinking a few beers together, they became firm friends. Oli already wore a fake hand and meeting Noah rekindled his desire to lose his legs. They had collaborated in organising their amputations through Aleph. When Noah revealed he had ordered disarticulations from his hips because of their ease of maintenance, Oli jumped on the bandwagon and requested the same. George looked at the two men’s sockets to inspect the results. Oli’s rounded torso socket was covered with the worn treads of the tyres from which it had been recycled, otherwise completely featureless. Noah had opted for short rounded fake stumps extending from the front of his printed socket. They were long enough to provide support when stationary, short enough not to interfere with his motion when swinging along on his hands. Both men could twist their torsos enough to rock their sockets forward without using their hands. Oli had selected his solid rubber peg arm on exiting his bedroom and leaned on it.

 

Noah suffered psychological difficulties after losing his legs. He had expected to be far more active than he found possible. Ordinary leg amputees had the option of learning to walk on some kind of assistive devices. Noah found hand‑walking to be too exhausting. He lived alone and was responsible for his small household. He had many hungry nights when he had not had the energy to shop for rations. Oli was concerned for his friend and discussed his situation with Harry, who as a man on two prosthetic legs at the time took all responsibility for such matters. Their apartment was big enough for a third legless man and the financial help with the rent was welcome. So Noah moved in, exactly five years ago last Wednesday and here they were, slightly changed and more mature. George commented on what a remarkable story it was and how fortunate they were to share an apartment. He knew nothing of the erotic aspects of the men’s ménage. Oli and Harry did not speak of their sexual relationship nor the manner of their stump‑centric lovemaking. George would have been fascinated but it was genuinely none of his business. Better that he should regard the amputees’ commune as strictly for practical purposes.

 

It was Oli’s turn to ask the questions. George and Oli had known each other for over ten years. George admitted his admiration for stumps at the same time Oli was determining to lose his left hand. Oli’s fresh stump had more or less guaranteed George’s continuing friendly interest. He was a generous and helpful man to know. His inquisitive enquiries into his friends’ feelings about their stumps would have been annoying if he were not so open and genuine. He was easy to get on with. Perhaps he was the type known as a man’s man. He simply had an unrelenting fascination with amputation. Oli teased George about him still being the only one in a broader circle of friends and acquaintances who had not undergone amputation despite his intense interest. It was something of which George himself was only too aware. He explained his reasoning to the group.

 

He believed that if he began a process of self‑transformation, he would automatically lose some of the intense interest he had always felt in seeing and admiring handsome virile disabled men. He fetishised artificial limbs and derived great pleasure from imagining himself using the same devices. He thought he knew himself well enough to know that owning his personal prosthetic limbs for his own personal needs would lessen the attraction and he would lose the one source of pleasure which he had relied on since his early childhood. Hearing this, the others nodded their heads, bemused by the unlikely mindset of their friend but recognising the truth in what he claimed. Their own fascination with other men’s disabilities had also been tempered by the loss of their own limbs and the necessity to contend with learning to use the sometimes primitive replacements which were often the only things available. Oli remembered how needing his recycled wooden peg leg had negated his desire to see other men with peg legs. The compulsion had evaporated. Oli cupped the broad rubber base of his peg arm with his natural hand in thought and George watched him.

 

Harry had been quiet for too long. He heard and understood George’s argument against his own amputations but the gin was beginning to take effect and his better judgment was impaired. It was easy to come to the conclusion that George was hypocritical. Harry lifted his buttocks on his hands in an attempt to adjust his minimal stumps. They stayed firmly in place inside the rubber torso socket but he now faced George directly. He challenged George to undergo an amputation in the new year, something minor and easily manageable. As a member of the local administration, George was eligible for a proper prosthesis. Harry suggested George consider adopting hooks. He could have one hand off now and learn how to come to terms with the hooked life and six months later, he could have the other hand off and become a bilateral. To emphasise the point, Oli pulled his peg arm off and rubbed his hairy stump to dry off perspiration. He held his stump in George’s line of sight and turned it slowly. George felt another surge of lust and stump envy and with defences weakened by the gin, he firmly stated that the time had come. He had nothing to lose. Oli congratulated him and the trio of leg amputees expressed their hopes that George would be a skilful bilateral hook user this time next year. George looked somehow relieved, as if a huge weight had been lifted. They were right. It was time.

 

George made his mind up. There was no longer the alternative of not amputating. His only choice was left arm stump or right arm stump first. He had no fear of becoming disabled. His life‑long attitude towards amputation reassured him that it was an enhancement, not a disability. Without revealing his decision, he spent a few evenings and weekend beer sessions in Charlie’s company. He wanted more information from the horse’s mouth about life as a man with bilateral arm stumps before he took the final step and booked surgery through Aleph. Charlie’s claws and sockets had been professionally made and were now seven years old. His stumps were older. He had used his naked stumps for a year an a half after they healed, savouring his lack of hands. The stumps themselves were only fifteen or so centimetres long below his elbows. Long enough to allow him to continue to use his elbows in conjunction with his prostheses but short enough to let him extract a stump from a socket effortlessly when it would be more useful. Charlie was a big man, tall and muscular. He had weight‑trained since his teenage years and his physique was still admirable at thirty. His short forearms emphasised his masculine physique.

 

George suggested meeting the legless guys before Christmas and spending a boozy evening discussing whether or not it was time for George himself to arrange his first transformation. Oli had been persuasive and recommended the loss of a hand to begin. Charlie grunted. He liked Oli and always asked when he was going to get his second hook. George suspected that Oli might go ahead if he set an example but first George wanted Charlie’s advice. They were in an almost empty pub with two pints of weak ale in front of them. Charlie’s arms rested on the table top. The claws were open and looked threatening, just as they always did when the prostheses were at rest. Charlie used voluntarily closing claws. They were large and substantial items and had a ferocious grip. They remained locked until Charlie released them. They were ideal for gripping the handlebar of his massive bike. Charlie operated the right claw and lifted the beer to his mouth, leaning forward to compensate for the claw’s inability to tilt. Charlie had wanted hooks for as long as he could remember, since he first discovered their existence. He had learned to ride a motorbike when he had hands and was dubious about acting on impulse until he discovered a video channel run by a bilateral amputee who drove using the same manufacturer’s claws which Charlie now wore. The claws themselves were large and more prominent than the two pronged steel hooks most arm amputees wore. They also looked imposing. Charlie thought they looked suitably impressive and decided they were what he had been looking for. He researched their availability and found a prosthetist who had a small supply of the devices. After his amputations, self‑caused by freezing his hands and lower forearms in dry ice, he had to wait until he was medically approved to return to his profession and fitted with standard prostheses with standard hooks. He visited the prosthetist at the first available opportunity to have the hooks replaced with claws and had used them daily ever since. They required double the effort to operate compared with ordinary hooks. The claws locked in any position while closing and remained so. A second effort was required to release them. They sprang open immediately and remained open. Charlie learned their shortcomings and how to compensate. He had no intention of returning to standard hooks but recommended that George learned to use an ordinary hook first before deciding what type he would finally choose to live with. It was a life‑long decision. The contrary method of operation meant that someone accustomed to one type found it almost insurmountable to switch to the other type after a while. George inspected one of Charlie’s short stumps and admired its globular firmness. Oli’s stump, concealed most of the time inside a socket, was longer and, George believed, more versatile. He would start his adventure in limblessness with the loss of his right hand just above the wrist. As George had recommended, using a hook on the right in place of a hand was a real test for a man who wished to become bilateral. He would no longer be right‑handed. He would be right‑hooked and quickly discover what it meant to use a steel hook.

 

It was the first of several meetings. George always credited Charlie with providing him the final impulse to take the plunge. He was insistent and reassuring, masculine and amicable. George wanted to emulate him and booked double amputations at Aleph’s ‘clinic’ in Harwich He negotiated with the health service authorities for preferential prosthetic care following his recovery, using his seniority in the system to ensure priority. No‑one asked why an apparently physically healthy citizen wanted bilateral below‑elbow sockets equipped with voluntary‑closing steel claws. George arranged for time off work for elective surgery and two days later was the owner of two tightly bandaged forearm stumps. He found the sight so erotically charged that he actually tried to masturbate with his stumps but they were far too tender and he remained frustrated for several days.

 

He kept in irregular contact with Charlie during his recovery and considered contacting Oli and the others to share the news of his disablement but decided to heal first, collect his prostheses and then drop by to demonstrate them. Charlie promised to coach George in using his new claws. They were anything but intuitive and the two phase operation was sometimes confusing but after a couple of weeks George would have started to form some kind of muscle memory. It might already be too late for him to adopt standard hooks. Charlie wanted George to use claws. He did not know anyone else who used them and although he did not want hooks, he did sometimes feel different in the company of other arm amputees. The two of them together would present an impressive sight and Charlie hoped George might let down his emotional shield during his recovery. Charlie had always wanted George and by encouraging him to disable himself in such a way that Charlie could advise and help, he hoped they might form a closer relationship. Hands or claws, George was a handsome catch. He had no idea that George felt the same way about the handless giant.

 

George was discharged with his stumps in liners. He was warned that they would remain sensitive and he should avoid knocking or stressing them. Without notifying him in advance, Charlie sat outside the clinic straddling his powerful motorcycle, toying with a second motorcycle helmet. George was too preoccupied to notice his friend until Charlie called him. George offered him a choice. They could either motor to George’s home where Charlie was prepared to act as a caretaker until George felt himself capable or they could go to Charlie’s apartment where George could remain as a guest. George chose to be Charlie’s guest. Charlie squeezed the helmet between his prosthetic forearms and pushed it onto George’s head, locking the chin strap with his claws. George gripped his friend’s midriff with his half‑arms and they sped back to Charlie’s home. Charlie proved to be a thoughtful host, a capable carer and after a few days, a sensitive lover. He was impressed by George’s bold decision to become a bilateral amputee in one go and was envious of the slightly longer stumps, which he found more aesthetically pleasing. George’s stumps visibly healed over the next couple of weeks and he began using them tentatively. He used them to wash his face with, to hold a toothbrush, to hold a glass to drink from or a sandwich. He notified his employer that he was ready to return immediately on receipt of prosthetic arms. Strings were pulled and George was soon the owner of a pair of recycled black rubber sockets equipped with exactly the same claws as on Charlie’s arms. The claws looked spiteful and aggressive. However, they were responsive and George quickly understood the logic behind their method of operation. Now he could dress himself, squeeze and grip things. Charlie relished the following days when they were intimately close. He was grateful for George’s decision not only to become an amputee at last but also for his unspoken mutual admiration which had led him to adopt a pair of claws like his lover.

 

George remained with Charlie. Their relationship strengthened as George became more confident with his claws. They invited Oli, Harry and Noah to spend a weekend to celebrate their new lifestyles. Oli left after three days of mild debauchery finally convinced to become a quadruple amputee. It was time to act. He envisaged himself reliant on short peg arms, crutches with sockets, to move around or scoot along on his skateboard. He would change into the new set of artificial arms and hooks on a double harness when he needed his hooks. He began to positively dislike his natural hand and wished to be rid of it.

 

As an existing and trusted patron of Aleph, he received priority treatment from the same Harwich clinic where George’s amputations had been performed and returned home a fortnight later wearing one artificial arm, his fresh stump hidden in his sleeve. Several weeks passed until he felt able to return to the rationing office and continued his work as a one‑hooked legless employee. Other amputee colleagues pumped him for information about how he felt in himself now at being completely reliant on prosthetic arms and pegs. Oli simply described his deep inner satisfaction at being limb free and the enormous pleasure at being severely disabled. His listeners nodded their heads, deducing from their own varying degrees of limblessness that a greater sense of accomplishment was available at the price of some initial inconvenience.

 

Neither George nor Charlie experienced the same mobility problems as their trio of legless friends. As much as George in particular enjoyed the opportunity to admire their strenuous efforts to move about on hands or peg arms, he was never satisfied with his own considerable disability. He had exchanged his hands for steel claws but otherwise life went on as usual. There was none of the ecstatic surrender to helplessness which the trio often remarked on. The two bilaterals developed a routine in which one or the other would forego using prostheses on alternate weekends. On the first weekend, George removed his claws and hung them from the harness ring in his closet as soon as he arrived home from work. It would be Charlie’s responsibility to assist him if he was confronted with something he could not manage with his naked stumps. Charlie admired George’s stumps. They were beautifully proportioned. The scars from the sutures were invisible under the dark hair covering George’s stumps. The handless weekends went some way towards compensating for their weekday prosthetic prowess. They both enjoyed the freedom of exposing their stumps in the knowledge that the other would come to their aid if necessary.

 

Oli derived similar pleasure from his arm stumps. They were long enough to let him masturbate, a familiar activity which now called for a different technique. The fleshy tips of his stumps were ideal to hold and tease his glans, and his shortened hairy forearms worked in tandem on the shaft. If he could also gyrate his body stump against something, the resulting rush was far superior to anything he had experienced when he had limbs. Noah and Harry still had vestigial leg stumps which assisted in maintaining balance when seated without their buckets and often began a mutual session by facing each other and twitching their stumps against the other’s. They were the only men in their circle of friends with hands and they could jerk off in the usual manner, often on their backs.

 

George and Charlie accustomed themselves to boasting naked arm stumps and gradually worked up the courage to try coping as handless men in public. It was easy enough for most of the year but in winter, when the weather was at its most violent and unpredictable, jackets were required. George suggested they each have a jacket adapted to suit their naked stumps which would also avoid the   aesthetic problem of empty flapping sleeves. Charlie sacrificed his black leather motorcycle jacket. It was returned with neatly sewn professionally shortened sleeves, sliced off at the elbow. His short globular stumps poked out and he could use them with ease. George had a dark green leather blazer which he rarely wore but had not been willing to donate for recycling. This too was altered to allow his half forearm stumps to peek out of the sleeves. Charlie’s bike jacket looked spectacular when paired with his black rubber artificial arms. His steel claws complemented the metallic detailing on his jacket.

 

They jointly agreed on one other thing which both found unnecessarily time‑consuming—shaving. As they approached the end of their twenties, their beard growth was the best it would ever be. They both shaved daily out of old habit. Charlie suggested they allow their beards to grow, first as a good‑natured competition between themselves and later, when they both sported impressive growth, as a dare to see which of them would succumb to a barber’s razor first. Bearded men were a common sight again, not for any fashion‑related reason but simply because razor blades were both scarce and low‑quality. But few men dared display such magnificent beards as the two bilaterals. They groomed each other and rubbed scented beard oil and conditioners into their bushes with their uplifted stumps. They both attracted even more attention in public and not a little envy. Many men would have gladly swapped places with them, regardless of their repulsive claws.

 

Oli had independently started his own beard after hearing about Charlie and George’s rivalry. He was quite capable of shaving with an electric razor without outside help. He had never worn a beard before. Unfortunately for him, the whiskers on his cheeks were too sparse so he contented himself with a moustache. It grew naturally in a perfect handlebar, strong curving whiskers which wanted to curl upwards to each side. Oli was an extraordinary figure of a man, rocking his armless torso along on peg arms and drawing admiration for his magnificent whiskers.

 

The winter of 2047 was as disruptive as that of 1947. Roads became impassable, public transport ceased. Charlie regarded himself as a practised motorcyclist and dared to continue riding despite the obvious dangers. Unfortunately his luck ran out when he failed to brake in time to avoid colliding with another vehicle. He toppled sideways with the heavy bike crushing his right leg, a mishap made worse by the other vehicle partially mounting his bike and exerting additional pressure. By the time assistance arrived, Charlie’s broken femur had allowed the weight on his leg to prevent blood flow to his lower leg. To save time, his right leg was amputated close to the hip, leaving a meagre stump mostly devoid of bone.

 

He returned home in a wheelchair which he used by scooting with his remaining leg. His claws were useless on the wheels. The trio of amputees rushed to reassure him that the loss of one leg was not the end of the world. Charlie himself was relieved that he had lost his right leg and not his left. His motorbike was a write‑off but he might ride again with or without an artificial leg which he fully intended to acquire on way or another. He was quite prepared to tolerate a belt and braces suspension system to hold the prosthesis on his stump if the latter proved to be too inconsequential to operate a prosthesis, as he suspected.

 

He was correct. The leg he received was made of recycled tyres, like his arm sockets, and had been manufactured bearing in mind its weight. It was a ten centimetre wide pole without a foot. The knee was a mere lockable hinge, the cheapest and most basic knee available. But it was reliable. Charlie was happy to have anything which would release him from the hated wheelchair. His stump rested comfortably in the only part of the prosthesis which had been personally customised for him. The rubber felt cool and tacky against his skin. A broad rubberised belt cinched across his midriff and was held tight by adjustable steel fasteners. The long tubular leg remained rigid through its entire length unless a release was activated behind the ‘knee’. It had a large steel ring which had to be pulled upwards to release the knee hinge, allowing the user to sit with a bent knee. It automatically relocked on standing. Charlie was easily able to operate it with a claw. The footless lower leg had a separate base, currently an inch thick pad of solid rubber which would wear in use and could be replaced when it became too worn.

 

Charlie was satisfied with his situation. The rubber peg leg was all he needed to walk and despite its unsophisticated appearance, Charlie felt no shame in having one leg of his trousers tailored to knee length so he could reach the steel ring behind his knee. Quite often, he ignored the hinge and sat with his rubber peg leg pointing forward. He would have liked to leave the peg off sometimes but his claws were inconvenient for use with crutches. His lack of wrist movement was the main obstacle. Even during his no‑claws weekends, he insisted that George attach his peg. George appreciated the footless cylindrical lower leg. It was matte black rubber and looked both primitive and hypermasculine. He liked to watch Charlie walking. The peg swung from its upper hinge at the hips with little assistance from Charlie’s stump. His first steps were always unsure and halting until the peg gained enough inertia to co‑operate. Unsurprisingly, George fantasised about his own peg leg but had not made any decision concerning further amputation. There was time enough for that. Maybe after his fortieth birthday in three years time.

 

Noah and Harry both needed new torso sockets. The fake stumps on Noah’s socket had holes along the bottom where friction had worn them and Harry’s socket had become loose without the possibility to tighten it further. Harry had always liked the idea of artificial stumps and had long ago decided he would try to persuade a prosthetist to manufacture his next socket with two short stumps at the front. Noah had a different idea. He was the only member of the ménage à trois with natural hands and was prepared to progress at last to using a pair of short crutches to haul a socket with additional fake leg stumps around. He had considered different scenarios so often and so thoroughly that now when there was a genuine need for an update to his socket, he was prepared to request knee length extensions. They would be the same style as Charlie’s peg leg, merely wide cylindrical tubes with exchangeable flat rubber ferrules. He would use shortened elbow crutches to haul himself about, knowing perfectly well that they would preclude him from using his hands. But he would stand considerably taller and the idea of seeing two immovable rubber legs the length of his former thighs excited him. He discussed the matter with Harry and persuaded him to request the same configuration. Harry initially protested, pointing out that he would need the same kind of peg arms as Oli but Oli quickly changed Harry’s mind, pointing out the pleasures of using arm stumps to operate both peg arms and hooks, exchanging one set of prostheses for another with mere stumps. It was the clincher. Harry had seen Oli struggling with his prosthetic upper limb systems often enough to know what might lie ahead. In the end, Harry succumbed to Noah’s persuasion and ordered his first torso socket with knee‑length extended stubbies.

 

The two men were invited to receive their unusual sockets at the same time. Harry’s customised crutches had taken longer to manufacture than expected. Both torso sockets fit correctly and could be perfected with slight adjustment. The greatest challenge was becoming accustomed to standing on short rigid legs and learning how to benefit from them. The prosthetist advised them to arrange for a sturdy knotted rope to be hung from a ceiling or door frame which they could use to pull themselves erect. He lifted the men to their identical feet and explained that the legs were solid rubber, hardened for resilience, and the tips would gradually wear into a pattern which best suited their style of walking. Noah accepted a pair of short elbow crutches and was advised to wear gloves to protect his hands. Harry lifted his arm stumps while the prosthetist pushed the sockets of his converted crutches onto them. The sockets had ratchet mechanisms which someone might tighten in order for the crutches to fit without slipping. The crutch pylons were aluminium and curved twenty degrees from the socket so their tips met the ground at right angles. The prosthetist apologised for not having experience with such unique devices and invited them to carefully lift themselves using their crutches to discover their new centres of balance. Noah was quickly able to swing himself in place but Harry found he needed to experiment before he felt safe relying on the new peg arms.

 

They practised for half an hour, moving imperceptibly, testing various motions and pressures. Harry savoured his new height and the sensations around his amputation sites. His peg arms ironically felt utterly crippling. He was effectively trapped until someone removed them for him. Neither man felt ready to leave wearing the new sockets and they arranged to have them delivered to their apartment by courier. They left wearing the old sockets in which they had arrived.

 

The new equipment arrived the following afternoon, brought by two apprehensive cyclists whose imagination did not extend to comprehending its use. Noah accepted and signed for them with a flourish. The couriers confronted a legless man with short black stumps and gave silent thanks to providence for not being in his situation.

 

Oli was as excited to see the new sockets as Noah and Harry were to receive them. Noah insisted Harry change first while he still had his hands free. Harry shucked his old socket and positioned the new one on the sofa so he could force his torso stump into it. His arm stumps scrabbled at the closure system in an attempt to tighten it. Noah did it for him and pulled Harry around so he could slide forward from the seat to stand on the floor. Noah held the peg arms firmly as Harry pushed his stumps into them. He was trapped again, helpless until assisted from the prostheses. He balanced on his rigid rubber legs and lifted his peg arms, testing their balance and weight. The prosthetist had done a good job. They were exactly the correct length, providing support when stationary and providing lift when Harry put his weight on his pegs and straightened his elbows. The rigid stubby legs moved forward a few centimetres. He repeated the process and moved slowly across the room until he faced the wall. Imperceptibly he turned himself, enjoying the achievement and appreciated the utility of the peg arms. They were not so crippling as they looked.

 

Noah tested his own new socket, almost identical to Harry’s. The two straight stubbies were separated further than natural legs. They gave a bow‑legged effect which Noah found attractive. He intended finding shorts of suitable length to hide or disguise his rubber legs. His short elbow crutches allowed him to swing his lower body with more expertise than Harry. The stubbies kept him stable thanks to the distance between them. Oli was impressed by his friends’ enthusiasm and burgeoning skill and considered applying for a set of stubby legs for himself. But first he wanted to hear Noah’s and Harry’s impressions before making a decision. He had something else in mind but kept it to himself for the time being. He also preferred the idea of wearing rubber blocks on his arm sockets rather than using dedicated peg arms like Harry was destined to wear whenever he wanted to be mobile over any distance.

 

Harry and Noah practised their moves at home every evening and at weekends. They were unable to sit in chairs and so remained standing which they regarded as part of the rehabilitation process. Under cover of darkness, Harry and Noah dared extend their practice runs to the public realm. They dressed in hoodies and new army surplus camo shorts which hid their rubber stubbies. Noah found it easier to take longer strides outside. He bent his lover body from his waist and flicked the torso socket forward. It looked like a powerful and masculine way for a legless man to move and Harry did his best to emulate him but his peg arms were not as versatile as his friend’s crutches and Harry always appeared to be struggling, even when he was not. He eventually discovered a way of walking which involved transferring weight from one side to the other, and his rubber legs swung forward a little at each step. He leaned onto his peg arms which flicked forward alternately. Harry looked severely disabled at all times and soon learned to appreciate the new sensations which the requirement for more flexible movement in his torso stump engendered. Slight friction around his pelvic amputation sites caused him to nurse a semi‑erection for much of the time. The helplessness he felt in his arm stumps without his hooks became another source of genuine pleasure. It was the pinnacle of joy to work his stumps to their limits.

 

Charlie and George knew of the trials and tribulations Harry and Noah were putting themselves through by regular contact with Oli and found their interest piqued. As the harsh winter drew to its close, Charlie suggested another get‑together in early spring. He had another reason to invite Oli especially. He had long tried to persuade Oli to adopt voluntarily closing claws such as he and George used and now had a spare pair after ordering a pair of aluminium and rubber claws which he had come to prefer. He wanted to suggest that Oli try out his old set of claws in the hope that the man might experience their superiority, as he saw it.

 

The remnants of ice and snow disappeared with the lengthening evenings. Noah and Harry had become used to crutching outside and Harry seemed to have perfected a waddling rocking motion, pushing himself on each peg arm in turn. Noah merely lifted both stubbies and swung them forward. They no longer needed to pay so much attention to their methods of walking and spent more time discussing personal matters, including those of Oli, who had recently begun to seem downcast and uninspired. They suspected his slight depression might be due to Oli’s conviction that he had reached the end of his transformation, that there was nothing new for him to try and that as a legless torso with two artificial arms, he had experienced everything his amputations could offer. Oli had often congratulated both of them as they overcame physical and psychological obstacles which their immobile short rubber legs presented. Neither man showed any less enthusiasm for changing from their weekday legless rubber sockets into their stubbies whenever the opportunity presented itself. But Oli seemed to be harbouring a secret, reluctant to speak about what was genuinely bothering him.

 

The invitation to spend a weekend evening and the following day at Charlie’s invitation came at the right time. With five days to go, the prospect of spending time with the two handsomely bearded claw users promised to be a welcome break from their casual routines and perhaps Oli could be coaxed into revealing what was bothering him. It brightened their moods and quickened their step, so to speak. When Charlie opened his door to them, he was faced with three severely disabled torsos with beaming smiles. George welcomed them and plied them with alcohol from the very start. The newcomers noticed how expertly George manipulated both the large heavy bottles and the more delicate straight glasses in which he served their drinks. As a man who had come late to amputation, George showed nothing but skill and complete familiarity with the considerable difficulties posed by his insistence on voluntarily‑closing claws. They were so big, so awkwardly shaped, so confusing to use, yet George seemed completely accustomed to them and wielding them as naturally as his own flesh hands.

 

Soon Charlie revealed one of the reasons for his invitation. He showed Oli his new aluminium and rubber claws which he had returned to their original box. He invited Oli to open it, which Oli was easily capable of doing with his standard hooks. He saw the prosthetic claws for the first time. They were familiar from video sequences of men using them but this was the first time he had see them in person. Charlie stated that he had bought them out of curiosity and invited Oli to try them on. As always, Noah stepped up to the task, heaving himself across to park opposite Oli, letting his crutches fall to the floor and starting the familiar process of unscrewing Oli’s hooks. The new rubber claws were lighter than they looked. Charlie boasted of their various advantages compared with normal hooks. They were voluntarily‑opening, like normal hooks, but they also remained locked in any stationary position, in which regard they resembled Charlie’s usual claws. Oli was clearly delighted to see something new on his sockets and found the rubberised claws to be good‑looking and versatile. Charlie waited for Oli to comment positively on the locking mechanism before mentioning that his steel claws operated in exactly the same way and before Oli could protest, Noah was unscrewing the rubberised claws and replacing them with Charlie’s. Oli looked at the unfamiliar claws with surprise and delight. They were much bigger than his standard hooks and remained open like the jaws of a voracious sea creature until he snapped them closed on something. Charlie invited him to wear them for the rest of the evening as Noah screwed the rubberised claws onto Charlie’s sockets where they belonged. Oli initially found the operating method slightly confusing but soon found the logic perfectly simple. His spindly steel hooks remained on the table for the rest of his visit as Oli familiarised himself with the claws which Charlie and George swore by.

 

Talk turned to the new sockets, which were already a few months old. Noah and Harry leaned against the sofa rather than lying on it, supported by their rubber stubbies at a conversational height. It made no difference to them whether they stood or sat. It felt the same. Harry, wearing the artificial arms he had brought in his backpack, was the most disabled of them all but enjoyed the company as much as anyone else. George, ever the connoisseur of thing prosthetic, admired one of Harry’s peg arms and learned about it practicality and the sensations which it transmitted to the stump. It socket was too narrow for it to fit on George’s own stump. He would otherwise have enjoyed wielding an aluminium crutch as part of himself, transforming himself further into a prosthetic man. Both he and Charlie had wordlessly agreed to halt their transformations. It was enough to keep their legs but to cripple themselves with their awkward claws. It was enough challenge. As Charlie had shown, there were different prosthetic devices available for a price and trying them out would remain one of life’s little pleasures.

 

The alcohol loosened Oli’s tongue and he unexpectedly revealed the thoughts about the future over which had struggled for much of the winter. At first, the others presumed he was merely envious of Noah and Harry, both of whom had made great strides, figuratively speaking, in becoming more mobile and outgoing thanks to extra height and a relatively more normal body image. Crippled or not, they now appeared to have legs. But Oli revealed his own plan to regain his full height on two artificial legs and learn to use them to his best advantage. He had researched online and queried AI for answers and solutions. He had studied the gaits of legless, stumpless men who had been fitted with torso sockets to which were attached reciprocating prosthetic legs which enabled the amputees to walk, albeit slowly, by rocking their torsos. When pressure was released from the thigh joint, it moved the leg forward. Some of the men relied on frames, others on crutches, but they could all stand tall.

 

Oli’s problem was finding a prosthetist who could manufacture similar equipment for himself. He intended to acquire the same rubberised claws which George often favoured for use with a walking frame. This entire revelation had the others concerned for Oli’s mental well‑being. Surely he was not beginning to regret his leglessness and arm stumps after so much anguish and time spent creating his ideal body shape. Oli was amused and assured everyone that his complete leglessness and reliance on his rubber bucket for sufficient support to merely sit were the pinnacle of his personal pride. He simply wanted to exploit other avenues of disability and regarded his limbless torso trying to control a full length pair of artificial legs as a suitable challenge. Everyone agreed that it was a formidable challenge and assured Oli that they would support him in his attempt to double his height in the near future.

 

George was enthusiastic about helping Oli fulfil his ambition. The pair of them independently researched independent prosthetists who had both the necessary knowledge and equipment to produce a set of inert legs and a pair of long peg arms to allow Oli his mobility. He also toyed with various designs for Oli’s legs based on Chinese and Brazilian versions which he had discovered online. Oli had originally spoken of reciprocating hip joints but despite their nationwide search, no such devices seemed to be available. Either the demand was none existent or the import price was too exorbitant. George finally contacted the man who was willing and able to provide Oli with legs. Oli would need to arrive for an interview and first fitting as well as agreeing to a payment plan. George relayed the information to Oli, who was amused by George’s continuing interest in his disabilities even though George had his own prosthetic problems to contend with.

 

Arrangements were made, including an initial appointment. The prosthetist worked from a private house on an ordinary street in Frome, Somerset. The only reasonable way for a client to arrive was by private vehicle. Frome had had a railway station, now closed for many years, and it was far from any major thoroughfare. George drove Oli to his meeting, scheduled for late afternoon, in his electric trike. Oli sat in the minuscule back seat, perfectly comfortable with his peg arms detached on the floor, watching the scenery pass slowly by as George drove. Their conversation consisted also entirely of anecdotes about George’s other contacts around the world who had transformed themselves and how they were adapting to locally available artificial limbs. Oli mentioned a particularly original solution to the problem faced by legless men in areas in South Asia which were prone to flooding—they had learned to walk on a single central peg leg attached somehow to their torso sockets. Oli professed interest, which had been George’s intention from the start. He lusted for and had wet dreams about the image of Oli strutting about on long aluminium peg arms, swinging some kind of peg leg. George had not yet decided what type of peg he would prefer to see on Oli. Perhaps he might allow his friend to make his own decision.

 

The prosthetist, William White, was a short bald wiry man who could have been any age between 55 and 75. He welcomed his visitors without remarking on their disabilities and plied them with tea before turning to the matter at hand. He had several suggestions which Oli might like to consider, proposing similar solutions which he had dealt with previously. During his conversation, it became clear that he had been a military man and had retired early to take advantage of the increase in voluntary amputees after the change in the law. He proposed a system of prosthetic legs which Oli could vary according to his wishes and which would all present both advantages and disadvantages. Central to his proposal was a sturdy steel plate which could be attached to Oli’s existing socket. It would have a central housing to hold steel pegs of various lengths. They would allow Oli to stand at various heights. He asked about walking on two legs again at a normal height. The answer astounded him with its deviant logic and excited George to such a degree that he developed a painful erection. Quite simply, the central peg leg would attach to a horizontal bar at knee height from which two artificial legs were attached at each end. They might resemble peg legs or natural legs to which sports shoes might be fitted.

 

Oli considered the proposal. His legs would be easily transferred from one socket to the next. He could experience the comparative normality of two legs which melded into a single central peg or concentrate on directing one full‑length peg with his torso stump. He could see no specific problem with the design and allowed George to help him out of his socket so White could take measurements of both his broad stump and the socket itself. White proposed that the upper pylon be manufactured from the recycled tubular steel leg of an office table with the lower section bearing printed legs to the client’s own design. And yes, they could certainly be peg legs.

 

Oli thanked White for his time and returned home at four in the morning. George’s car was running out of juice and the final twenty kilometres were travelled at ten kilometres an hour in turtle mode. Oli was oblivious in the back seat, dreaming of striding about on a pair of wooden legs, supported by hefty upper thighs which thrust his artificial feet forward.

 

George was in daily contact with Oli, eager to persuade him to accept the absurd prosthetic system which Bill White had envisaged for him. George and Charlie had both begun a deeper exploration into disability by finding an artisan of custom‑made prosthetic equipment not a kilometre from their home. They had both been enamoured of a large silver hook and had persuaded the artist to manufacture two identical hooks. The two men took turns at wearing them. They looked macho as well as opulent. Few men ever afforded even one silver hook. They regarded their acquisitions as investments. On alternating weekends, one assisted the other with tasks the other could no longer perform. It was an erotic business, both he sensation of having huge hooks instead of hands and assisting the partner with intimate functions available only to the partner who used claws. George was more enthusiastic about his oversized hooks and wore them more frequently. He learned how to succeed at basic functions, discovering how to use his inert hooks to prepare food and drinks in the kitchen and a simple way to manage toileting. He had no compunction about being seen in public with giant silver hooks and often wore them instead of claws when he was out with Charlie on their weekly grocery run. Shocked shoppers watched in horrified fascination as the two men manipulated their grotesque prostheses, gathering provisions for the next days.

 

Charlie and George discussed Oli’s potential transformation into a man of normal height balancing on two artificial feet with the help of crutches. Charlie suggested that George might be more successful in persuading Oli to take the leap and place an order if the man could be certain of handling a pair of long crutches with his artificial arms. The best terminal devices for the job were without doubt his broad rubberised claws which could grip and lock onto the crossbars of any crutch type and would support Oli as he learned to swing his prosthetic legs forward. Charlie was far too enamoured of the large inert silver hooks to have any interest in using the rubberised claws and donated them to Oli, who had previously tested them and seemed positive. Two weeks later, coincidentally or otherwise, Oli contacted William White and placed an order for the system of modifications and attachments which they had discussed. Oli decided to have a new torso socket made at the same time, making it easier in future to switch between his legless and leg‑equipped versions.

 

White set to work. His military background propelled him towards optimum results if not perfection. The new socket was ready first. It was heavier than Oli’s previous versions—thicker, sturdier and smoother. The thick steel plate with rounded ends was both bolted and welded to its base. The upper pylon, half the length of the office table leg which it had formerly been, screwed into the plate but was readily removable. White manufactured a rubberised steel ferrule which would similarly attach to the pylon. Oli would have the option of walking on a twenty‑three centimetre long central steel peg leg. The extension was an inverted U. It was a single piece of steel plate bent in such a way that its two ‘feet’ stood thirty centimetres apart. Oli could choose between foot attachments or ferrules. The first alternative would allow him to wear footwear. The second would resemble the peg legs which Oli had previously mentioned. The equipment was not light but did not weigh as much as the flesh and bones which they were designed to replace.

 

George enthusiastically drove Oli to and from his various appointments for fittings and meetings to discuss prosthetic options, ensuring that his vehicle was fully charged. He had learned his lesson. One of the journeys brought him a great sense of accomplishment. He had a pair of ordinary claws with him but drove the entire return journey wearing his and Charlie’s co‑owned silver pirate hooks. Oli was reluctant to join him at first, but George pointed out that he had driven to pick Oli up wearing them through north London traffic and Oli relented. He was himself amazed by the hooks. They were so big and ostentatious, so crippling and apparently useless. George wore the pair frequently and for long periods. Charlie was usually at hand to lend a helping claw when necessary. George found the immovable hooks to be the height of nirvana. He was severely disabled and despite the easy availability of a variety of terminal devices, preferred to wear impractical hooks. They looked wonderful and he sported them with panache and pride.

 

Oli’s new socket and legs were ready and the entire selection of attachments was laid out for him to admire. Oli rocked in using his rubberised claws and tested the new socket with its heavy steel plate. The socket extended higher on his body and its form clung to his ribcage. The plate clanged on the concrete floor but it kept Oli secure. White knelt and attached the thick upper steel pylon, already fitted with a rubber ferrule. It would function as a peg leg, if Oli so desired. White offered the first of two pairs of wooden crutches, both of which were pre‑owned and refurbished to a glossy shine and the leather armpit cushions refilled with horsehair and polished to a bright finish. Oli negotiated his claws onto the crossbars and carefully lifted and swung his body forward. The new socket was perfection itself and provided the necessary counterweight for the steel peg leg. The peg itself felt logical and secure, a reassuring extension of his legless torso. He negotiated his way around White’s laboratory, enjoying the way his crutches obeyed him and the way the peg leg seemed always to travel the perfect distance for him to balance and progress. White was impressed and George looked on in delight, drinking in the sight of his friend learning how to walk on one single central peg leg. White interrupted Oli’s practice runs and suggested he try the peg extension. He slotted two ferrules onto the U‑shaped device and invited Oli to try walking with a new pair of refurbised crutches. They had been painted black at some time in the past and rather than strip the paint, White had applied high gloss black lacquer. The leatherwork was similarly black and after some adjustment to compensate for Oli’s claws, he managed to lift himself to a standing position on two featureless black rubber ferrules.

 

Oli picked his black crutches up and admired their appearance. He balanced tentatively at first on his rubber ferrules, testing their pliability and support. As before, he lifted himself slightly on his crutches and leaned forward enough to persuade his pegs to inch forward. He admired his height, realising that had he not opted to become a stumpless torso, he might always stand as tall as he was now on his central peg leg with steel extensions. Slowly and carefully, he heaved his way slowly across the lab, turning gradually to face the other way and returning to where White and George stood admiring his efforts. George was ecstatic. He had never seen such a device before and was excited at the thought of seeing Oli using it in public. White asked if Oli felt confident enough to try the peg leg ferrules in place of the feet and was pleased to hear confirmation. Oli himself thought that if he could handle peg legs, two artificial feet would be easy. So it was. Oli found it easier to manipulate his double pegs, both of which moved simultaneously and which kept him laterally stable. He actually stated that this was the best of all the combinations he had tried. He was tall, he felt capable, he was comfortable in his prosthetics and he was certain that he would be far more active in his professional life with new peg legs and new claws. He thanked both Walter White for his professionalism and George for his generosity. George removed his new socket and held his old socket in place while Oli forced his stump into it. George allowed White to hang carrier bags containing all the new equipment from his hooks, and after Oli had succeeded in opening to door to their e‑car, they made their way back from Somerset feeling on top of the world.

 

Oli was reluctant to ask for assistance every time he wanted to change sockets or claws. Noah was perfectly willing to assist, as he had always been and frequently offered  a helping hand. As the only flat dweller with natural hands, he was aware of his assumed responsibility towards his flatmates, both of whom had adopted their own preferred artificial arm terminals. Oli always wore his rubber claws because he usually wore his upper pylon at home, requiring only claws and crutches. He used his peg leg, seldom needing assistance. Harry was willing to lend a helping hook but his work was such that neither of the others wanted to disturb his concentration for something as trivial as exchanging terminal devices. Between the two bilateral arm amputees, they owned a large enough selection for either man to choose exactly the most suitable combination. Noah gladly assisted in changing hooks for claws until one day, out of the blue, he made a surprising announcement over the evening meal. He had helped Oli swap his rubberised claws for the steel versions received from Charlie and had finally decided that he wished to emulate them. He intended to lose both arms above the elbow in order to experience armlessness to its fullest. He wanted upper arm stumps about two thirds the distance to his elbows so he could operate a set of upper arm prostheses with ease. He longed to feel the same limblessness in his upper body as he did in his stumpless lower torso. He assured his friend that he would learn to use a pair of above‑elbow prostheses and become proficient with a pair of standard hooks. He had thought about his options for many months and was ready for his transformation. In fact, he had already booked an appointment for his amputations in four days time, leaving his flatmates in some confusion about how they would cope without Noah’s hands. Neither of them dared pass comment or criticism. Both Oli and Harry had progressed to their preferred degree of limblessness. It would be churlish to deny Noah the same. If the man wanted a greater degree of disability, he should be allowed it.

 

Noah was away for two weeks, during which time Oli became reliant on his peg and two feet. He had purchased a pair of worker’s boots and wore them inside and out. He wore a mid‑thigh length utility kilt to accommodate his upper peg and for much of the time it concealed the fact that the man had only one prosthetic leg, not two. His artificial feet wore thick white socks and ankle boots. He looked like a two‑legged man in a kilt and accepted the questioning glances from passers‑by as he crutched his way past them. Harry remained earthbound, feeling that the sensations from handwalking transmitted to his stump via his in‑built short peg legs were worth more than a transition to more natural‑looking alternatives. He preferred using standard hooks and was completely content with his amputations during Noah’s absence.

 

It took longer for Noah to heal than expected. There was some problem with the speed at which his flesh knitted. His stumps were monitored around the clock until an alarm sounded in the middle of the night. Both stumps had become necrotic and an emergency meeting was called of all available surgeons. They decided that two further amputations would be preferable to disarticulations and Noah’s half arms were reduced to minimal stumps at his shoulders. He was unaware of this, having remained in induced coma since his initial amputations. The new stumps healed well enough for his surgeon to recommend that the patient be brought round with a psychologist at hand to reassure the quadruple amputee that his armless status should be regarded as a greater challenge rather than the disastrous loss of his arms which it clearly was.

 

Noah was gradually revived and first became conscious of the web of sensors and drainage tubes criss‑crossing in front of him. His bandages held his stumps firmly and increased their girth and length. Noah intuited that something was different from what he had expected but relaxed back into semiconsciousness. Everything was fine.

 

The next day, his body was free of the chemicals which numbed his senses. He very soon realised that his arm stumps were nothing like what he had envisaged. He had intended to wear a pair of artificial arms on long above‑elbow stumps. Now, to all intents and purposes, he had no stumps. He let out a wail of anguish, quickly answered by several nurses and the psychologist who sat with him after the nurses had left. Noah learned of the gangrene which had affected both stumps after the first amputations and how the surgeons had reluctantly allowed him to keep short arm stumps. He might otherwise have had his arms disarticulated from the shoulder, leaving him without any vestige of stump. For that, he should be grateful. He would still be able to wear a set of prostheses but would find their use more restricted and challenging. But it was up to him to decide how well he wanted to rehabilitate himself. No mention was made of his missing legs. As his arm stumps healed, Noah began to recover some of his libido and spent much time activating the modified and repositioned musculature near his genitals in order to excite his erections. He imagined himself manipulating his cock with a new pair of hooks, and looked forward to the learning curve. It would be a unique achievement to bring himself to orgasm with the finely tuned movements of his shoulders. Noah’s recovery progressed ahead of time, to the intense relief of his doctors. He was allowed his bucket and a lightweight hospital wheelchair and transferred to rehabilitation, where the technician would have his hands full with the impatient quad.

 

They got on like a house on fire. Noah was positioned into a sitting position and propped up by cushions. He was instructed to lift his thighs and stretch his arms to the sides. The flesh at his groin rippled and his apple‑sized arm stumps described circles in the air. Noah found his exertions to be erotic and deeply satisfying. He had begun to appreciate his tiny arm stumps more now that he was certain that a pair of artificial arms with hooks was still on the agenda. It had been his aim—to replace his hands with hooks. In that, he had more than succeeded. Thanks to some rare pulling of various strings, Noah was visited by a prosthetist who discussed his prosthetic options. He was offered a variety of replacement arms, including a pair of inert arms the approximate colour of Caucasian flesh with handsome masculine hands and immobile wrists and elbows. The arms were intended solely as cosmetic, when the patient might wish to appear as normal as possible on occasions where he did not need to actually manipulate anything. Noah asked if they would support his weight and allow him to move in his bucket. The prosthetist was unsure but was sufficiently intrigued to know that he made a note to have a set made for his patient free of charge in the name of medical research. Four weeks later, he delivered a handsome pair of arms of recycled tyre rubber attached to a yoke which dropped over Noah’s head to rest firmly on his chest and across his shoulders. Traditional mechanisms to operate bilateral arms were linked skilfully inside the yoke. Noah was ecstatic with his new pair of hooks and insisted that his rehab trainer spend as much time with him as possible so he could learn to operate his new equipment to the greatest effect. He learned how shrugging one shoulder operated the arm on the opposite side and how to jerk his mechanical elbows to lock them before operating the hooks. He was pencilled in for discharge two days after he fed himself for the first time. George took him home, impressed by the way Noah flailed his artificial arms to make them do his bidding. Noah looked so sexy, so desirable, that George began to plan something which would realign Oli’s and Harry’s lives as well as his and Charlie’s. Quite simply, George wanted the limbless Noah as a fuck buddy. Shed of his bucket and arms, the torso with the big dick would be irresistible. And George wanted him.

 

Oli and Harry had both become more proficient with their hooks while Noah had been gone, from simple necessity. They assisted each other far more often, adjusting each other’s prostheses with their hooks or claws and holding on to the other’s torso sockets while they squirmed they way into them. Harry had learned how to walk on his rubber peg legs without outside assistance but Oli still preferred to use his pegs only outside the flat. Suddenly Noah returned and the ménage was thrown into mayhem. Neither Oli nor Harry wished any harm on Noah, utterly helpless until his arms were over his shoulders, but the new quad’s physical demands proved to be more than the two legless men felt capable of continuing. Oli explained as much to George during one of their regular contacts. Oli was most riled by having to use claws to manipulate Noah’s arms because of their sturdiness and then asking Harry to exchange his claw for hooks so he could work. Harry agreed that Noah’s complete limblessness was a challenge they were not willing to contend with and that was when George proposed his solution. He and Charlie had discussed the matter and agreed that if Noah was himself willing, he could move into Charlie’s apartment with his own cot and where the two bilateral arm amputees felt themselves able to care for the limbless torso. Oli heaved himself back and forth in the living room, his peg legs squeaking on the highly polished floor, thinking of a way to explain to Noah that he was too much of a burden and that they wished to be rid of him.

 

George came to the rescue. He appeared one Sunday morning, uninvited, and demanded coffee and biscuits. Oli, balancing on his peg legs, began to crutch over to the kitchen but George said he wanted Noah to brew it. Noah was on his skateboard and could scoot around using his hooks but he was incapable of making coffee. George allowed Oli to continue and enquired whether the two quads were up to taking care of Noah, with his much reduced capabilities. Harry admitted that there were problems and George suggested that Noah might thrive better in an environment where the inhabitants could better tend to the torso’s needs. It was the main topic of conversation for the rest of George’s visit and it terminated when George towed Noah’s skateboard out to his e‑car with his claws and transported themselves to Charlie’s apartment to begin a new life.

 

Both men were attentive to Noah’s needs, feeding and toileting him. Noah lost his apprehension of being tended to by his friends wearing vicious‑looking claws. They were gentle with him and after several weeks, he accepted their invitation to sleep with them instead of alone in his cot. George released his passion for sucking on Noah’s arm stumps and Charlie concentrated his efforts on tracing the scar tissue around Noah’s pelvis with his tongue. After discussing their needs and desires, Noah enthusiastically agreed to be the bilateral amputees’ go‑between. Charlie entered Noah who entered George at the same time. The three friend’s faces kissed and necked each other, the only conventional way the ménage à trois could express their intense love for each other and their appreciation of each others' remarkable stumps.

 

MÉNAGE À TROIS