Bedroom Hierarchy

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

So, I've been thinking a lot about where people sleep. There's a lot of tradition behind the concept, both in the Western world and elsewhere. Apparently, many saw separate beds for a married couple as very modern and healthy until about the 50s. In many polygamous cultures, the homestead was designed in a way that gave priority to different wives based on where their rooms were.

With a lot of stories on Lit involving whole families, or just groups of people, I thought it would be interesting to base a story around the concept. I think the power dynamic behind it all could be fun to play with... But, it needs a bit of spice — a little something extra!

So, how would you sex-up the concept? E.g. the bedroom that leads off the playroom is home to the nymphomaniac lover while the mature matriarch has a quieter enclave away from the action. Maybe some kind of tier system to illustrate a power dynamic? For me, this ties in to the 'billionaire' trope a little: How would you design your sex palace kinda vibe.

I've attached a little pic of a traditional African homestead to illustrate the general idea.

https://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Luo-Traditional-Homestead.png

 

[Carnevil9]

Interesting concept. Maybe the wives compete for "promotions" to a better placed bed by learning new sexual techniques, or by increasing their stamina, deepening their throats, etc. For them it becomes more about the competition than about the physical bliss. The husband benefits from it all.

 

[MiddleAgedMan]

You could borrow from Jordan and use the Atha’an Miere system of earrings, the more rings the higher status, though any who fall from grace still have the holes without rings in...

Just a thought that struck me, could also be a gateway to a more bdsm-type story if you want.

 

[Hypoxia]

Think of older times where a well-to-do house has a bed large enough for a woman and all her husbands, or a man and all his wives, and disfavored spouses must sleep at an edge.

For a more modern touch, the main bedroom has doors leading to single-bed rooms, and the dominant spouse rolls dice to see which door(s) will open that night, admitting the lucky spouse(s) in for random fun.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

For a more modern touch, the main bedroom has doors leading to single-bed rooms, and the dominant spouse rolls dice to see which door(s) will open that night, admitting the lucky spouse(s) in for random fun.

Yes! I think the randomness might add a layer of fun. Maybe the partners figure out their lover has been cheating so (s)he spends more time with their preferred spouse…

 

[Zeb_Carter]

And if it's one man and many wives, is he Hercules or Superman?

Or if it's one woman and many men, is she Wonder Woman or Supergirl?

Asking for a friend.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

And if it's one man and many wives, is he Hercules or Superman?

Or if it's one woman and many men, is she Wonder Woman or Supergirl?

Asking for a friend.

Would have to Hercules or Wonder Woman since Superman is too pure to have dirty rotten sex.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

Actually, one character in the centre of it all is boring…

You’d have to make it about the whole bunch — how some rooms/cottages connect to some but not to others. Plus, if the goal is to be faithful to the cultures that use(d) this kind of system, you could always look at the Rain Queen (Modjadji) who has a series of 'wives' that keep independent families in the same compound with the aim of producing heirs. (She’s not allowed to marry, but her wives are.)

 

[LupusDei]

Actually, one character in the centre of it all is boring…

You’d have to make it about the whole bunch — how some rooms/cottages connect to some but not to others.

Going full way into the randomness (and completely away from the original concept)...

...it's dorms in some, possibly extremely dystopian setting: you strip, shower and and go to the bedroom capsule the overhead machine indicates. All rooms are identical and have two entrances from corridors that don't cross. Some rare cases you may remain alone in the room, but usually there's already someone, or someone would come trough the other side soon enough. Usually of your preferred gender, but that's not guaranteed either. Sometimes you have the same partner for a while or recurring irregularly, but you may never see them again after tonight. Residents have no idea how or why the rooms are assigned the way they are (figuring out the alien logic involved might be a plot point). It's not explicitly required to have sex with whomever you're rooming tonight, it's unsaid but likely expected. They are watching.

 

[HectorBidon]

A more democratic arrangement would be a rotation system. One of my unfinished stories is about a research station in Antarctica where the crew members are confined in close quarters for months at a time. There are seven sleeping compartments, and efforts are made to ensure that the crew always consists of seven men and seven women.

Here is the way it was explained to my somewhat surprised protagonist by the pretty field technician on his first night at the base:

"We'll be bunking together tonight, you and me. The way it works is that every night we rotate around, so that over the course of a week all the men sleep with all the women, and all the women sleep with all the men. Young and old, good looking and not-so-good looking, officers and staff alike.

"It's a kind of nice system, actually. If there's someone you particularly fancy, you get to spend the night with them once a week. By the same token, if there's someone you don't particularly care for, you only have to put up with them for one night a week. You get to know everyone in a kind of special way. You get to see things from a lot of different points of view.

"There's one important rule, though, that everyone has to follow. What happens in the sleeping compartment stays in the sleeping compartment. It's considered very bad form to talk about your Wednesday partner with your Thursday partner, or to talk about either of them with any of your same-sex colleagues. Keep what's between the two of you between the two of you, no matter what it is. It's nobody else's business.

"By the same token, it's also considered bad form to ask a partner how you stack up compared to any of his or her other partners. Just try to be the person you'd wish to be if the two of you had been dropped together into a cozy sleeping compartment in the midst of the Antarctic wilderness. And just assume that they are doing the same."

 

[Hypoxia]

...The way it works is that every night we rotate around, so that over the course of a week all the men sleep with all the women, and all the women sleep with all the men. Young and old, good looking and not-so-good looking, officers and staff alike...

That omits same-sex and group encounters. Nothing but vanilla couplings on a fixed rotation schedule? Boring. "If this is Tuesday, I must be in Ed's bed," Cyndi groaned.

For drama, let's have some cheating on the rigid rules, and hurt feelings with blackmail and revenge, and frantic make-up gangbangs, and shared STDs and emotional outbursts, failed contraception, etc. Some of the base crew have significant others back in the world who can complicate matters. Think jealousy or grudging acceptance.

For fun, some outsiders crash-land nearby, are rescued, and become involved in the nightly fuckfests. Are they wildcards in the game?