Carpe Coma

One subject that continually runs headfirst into the fantasy realm at the first opportunity is someone being ‘made’ a slave. Such fantasies almost always involve a heavy reliance on illegal activities (kidnapping, blackmail, threats of violence, etc) as well as large amounts of infrastructure and man-hours. All extremely unlikely (as most of us have jobs) and nearly impossible to seek out as people that do that sort of thing don’t advertise. So how can someone be ‘made’ a slave in a realistic and legal manner? Most of it is rather simple once you have a good understanding of what power is. Two primary things must be controlled; communication and movement. Someone that can’t move or speak of their own accord is helpless.

Some basic steps to total enslavement;

1: No possessions. I mean none, not even the clothes on her back. Anything that someone owns is a source of leverage, of power. This puts her in the position of having to steal (thus putting her at your whim to be reported to the police) to even leave the house in a decent manner without tacit permission.

2: No money and especially no cash. This ties into no possessions, but is a bit more reaching. No money means no taxi, no pay phones, no food, and no way to start up an independent existence on a whim. Being totally and absolutely broke is very restricting on one’s freedom. If she works, her paychecks should be direct deposited into an account which she doesn’t have access to. For practical reasons, she might be allowed access to a card that’s not in her name, as the card could then be cancelled at anytime.

3: No access to her ID/SS card/passport. This is subtle move with huge effects. Someone without an ID cannot legally drive a car, get a job, nor engage in most significant financial transactions. For practical reasons, the driver’s license might be allowed under some circumstances like work isn’t nearby, running errands, etc. Not having ownership of the car nor a second form of ID is still pretty limiting.

4: No phone/internet or restricted phone/internet. This hobbles communication with the rest of the world, which hampers her ability to use others.

Those basic steps, while not covering everything (I ought to not give away all the secrets), is a pretty solid start to legally putting someone in a situation where they have no power. Someone with no power is, for all intents and purposes, a slave as they have little choice but to obey.