Jedakk's Masterpiece

[Deleted member jedakk]

there's something - for me at least - very arousing
about those bare, dispassionate instructions from Salonina
on 'how to cope on the cross'. In my own fantasies,
in a more present-day context, I imagine,
after I've been condemned, being given an instruction booklet,
or shown a video, spelling out in that cold way
what's going to happen to me...

When I wrote all that, I had been thinking for a while about the scenario where someone visits a friend in prison who's been condemned to die on the cross. What on earth could you say to them? It's worth a lot to them, of course, just that you showed enough care to be there. And then Salonina knew things that she thought might help Sabina cope with what was going to be done to her. Here's what Salonina said about her decision to go to Sabina's prison cell:

Nothing is as painful or as slow and humiliating as the cross. And nothing anyone could do would make it any easier for her. But I had it in my mind to try, because as foolish as she was, I liked her. She was a bright spot in my kitchen even though she’d only been around for a few weeks.

I lay awake most of the night thinking about it. It would be so much easier to not do anything, just forget about her or try to. But then I thought, what if it was me that was going to be crucified? What if everyone I knew turned their backs on me and I had to face that alone and feeling abandoned? Sometimes you have to do what’s right no matter how hard it is. After I made my decision, sleep came a lot easier.​

So basically, Salonina was following the imperative of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If it had been her in Sabina's place, she'd want to feel that people still cared about her.

Now, Sabina was definitely buoyed up by Salonina's visit. However, she wasn't listening to Salonina's instructions a much as she was feeding her obsession with Salonina's description of what was going to be done to her the next day. In the darkness, after Salonina had left, we find that out in Sabina's narration of what she did:

I lifted my dress and unwound my sodden loincloth, used a dry part of it to wipe the wetness between my legs and buried it in the hay in a corner of the cell. Then I unwound the strophium around my breasts and made it into a loincloth.​

So Salonina had been doing her best to help Sabina deal with her execution, and Sabina had been getting off on it the whole time.

 

[phlebas]

I lifted my dress and unwound my sodden loincloth, used a dry part of it to wipe the wetness between my legs and buried it in the hay in a corner of the cell. Then I unwound the strophium around my breasts and made it into a loincloth.

So Salonina had been doing her best to help Sabina deal with her execution, and Sabina had been getting off on it the whole time.

And each gets what they truly want.

And so do we.
It is a journey, this story, and rightfully so. No wham bam thank you mam, but a well rounded story which poses and answers many questions. Practical ones, psychological ones, personal ones.
Thanks Jed!

 

[Proleg]

It doesn't have much to do with the conversation but prison was mentioned, which reminded me of the following. Shown are contemporary prison crucifixions in an Eastern Block country.

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

And each gets what they truly want.

Well put! Of the two of them, only Sabina actually knows all that is going on, but Salonina leaves believing that she did what she set out to do. Anyone in her position, having done what she did, would feel some self-satisfaction at that. She could just as well have gone on with life and not done anything, but that's not in her nature.

However, in the end, Sabina frightened her. She threw tantrums that no slave in her right mind would do for fear of the consequences. Salonina realized that given more time, Sabina could have caused a disaster. Salonina described it thus:

I was angry and frightened myself now. With more time in Carbo’s domus, she might have done something even worse than attacking her Domina. This one might have got all of the slaves in the house nailed to crosses, including me. Maybe it was a good thing Sabina was going to the cross now, and by herself.​

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

Despite her desperate efforts to hold herself up on the cross and breathe, it was a losing battle. Sabina could feel her sweaty butt slipping against the rough wood, her body sliding down lower a little at a time. Here's how Julia Lepida describes it:

She was steadily losing her battle with exhaustion, her legs shaking as they grew weaker. She tried to use her buttocks to hold herself up, but the instant she tried to relax her legs a little, her body would slip downward and she would have to catch herself. As her knees bent further it became even harder for her to bear her weight. Another sudden slip and her eyes widened in fear as she felt the point of the cornu touching her between the legs. She no longer had the strength in her legs to raise herself. She would have to make a decision between one torture and another.

Before when she had tried and failed to sit on the cornu’s point, she had tensed the big muscles in her buttocks to try to take the pressure. But now, with her buttocks pressed back against the timber behind her, the point was aimed directly at the delicate pink folds of her sex.

With less than a finger’s breadth separating them, when she slipped only a little lower, the rough end of the cornu would press hard into the softness there. I clenched my own thighs together thinking about how impossibly painful that would be. By that time she might well be too weak to lift herself up again, and all of her weight would come down on it.

I thought of one young slave girl among many I’d seen on a cross back in Pompeii, her desperate screams of agony as she struggled and writhed on the point of a cornu. My slave and I were in the crowd then, laughing and jeering at her along with the rest, because that was all part of the show we had come to see. We continued laughing as the girl fought, pulling and pushing herself up on her nails just enough to work the opening of her vagina over the cornu’s point. She screamed as the wooden horn disappeared inside of her, and my slave shouted something at her about that being the hardest cock she’d ever ride. How her fortunes had turned!​

 

[Eulalia]

I thought of one young slave girl among many I’d seen on a cross back in Pompeii, her desperate screams of agony as she struggled and writhed on the point of a cornu. My slave and I were in the crowd then, laughing and jeering at her along with the rest, because that was all part of the show we had come to see. We continued laughing as the girl fought, pulling and pushing herself up on her nails just enough to work the opening of her vagina over the cornu’s point. She screamed as the wooden horn disappeared inside of her, and my slave shouted something at her about that being the hardest cock she’d ever ride. How her fortunes had turned!

that passage is one that's burnt on my memory from when I first read your story, Jedakk -
it brings out so cleverly the complex thoughts and feelings of a woman
in a world where extremes of pain and pleasure are everyday spectacles,
and her own turn could come whenever the Fates decreed!

 

[thehangingtree]

http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/attachments/sabina-crucified-scene-14-17_0001-jpg.302246/
Who dropped that load of wood on the poor guy???

Seriously, get segment...

 

[admihoek]

http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/attachments/sabina-crucified-scene-14-17_0001-jpg.302246/
Who dropped that load of wood on the poor guy???

Seriously, get segment...

one of your beloved fellow workers?

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

that passage is one that's burnt on my memory from when I first read your story, Jedakk -
it brings out so cleverly the complex thoughts and feelings of a woman
in a world where extremes of pain and pleasure are everyday spectacles,
and her own turn could come whenever the Fates decreed!

Thanks for that! I was trying to put Julia Lepida's thoughts as she watched Sabina on the cross into the context of memories she might well have had. One of the things I tried to do in The Serpent's Eye was to explore the minds of the characters involved. Telling the story through the eyes of different narrators enabled me to do that in detail. But I found out that it's damned difficult to know when it's time to "tag" the next narrator and do it with a smooth transition in the story's timeline.

Yes, Julia Lepida is terrified that she'll be found out and end up on a cross herself!

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/attachments/sabina-crucified-scene-14-17_0001-jpg.302246/
Who dropped that load of wood on the poor guy???

Seriously, get segment...

I never looked at it that way! I was thinking when I did that rendering that the end of that patibulum was a nice touch, but I never noticed those feet under it.

 

[admihoek]

Yes, Julia Lepida is terrified that she'll be found out and end up on a cross herself!

and get mad at the thoughts about her own crucifiction

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

Sabina realized that she had slipped down until the point of the cornu was just beneath her. The touch of the point of the horn made her shiver involuntarily. She was already too weak to push herself up on the cross. If her legs gave just a little, the cornu would slide into her cleft. She had to make some choice now.

Here's how Julia Lepida described it:

She slipped a little, her body shuddering in response to the prodding of the hard wooden point on her sensitive inner lips. Before she was able to catch herself, she slipped down further, screaming in panic as the point pressed into her cleft with bruising pressure that was rapidly growing much worse.​

 

[thehangingtree]

Sabina realized that she had slipped down until the point of the cornu was just beneath her. The touch of the point of the horn made her shiver involuntarily. She was already too weak to push herself up on the cross. If her legs gave just a little, the cornu would slide into her cleft. She had to make some choice now.

Here's how Julia Lepida described it:

She slipped a little, her body shuddering in response to the prodding of the hard wooden point on her sensitive inner lips. Before she was able to catch herself, she slipped down further, screaming in panic as the point pressed into her cleft with bruising pressure that was rapidly growing much worse.​

The spectators in the background add much to this!!!

 

[Eulalia]

Julia's fascinated, but for those other girl who've turned up to watch,
it's just such a laugh!

 

[montycrusto]

Seriously, I'm dreaming about Julia...

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

Julia's fascinated, but for those other girl who've turned up to watch,
it's just such a laugh!

Yes, those two were easily amused! From their clothes, they are supposed to be a couple of high-class ladies out looking for some entertainment watching the naked people on their crosses. Being the pampered, self-centered types that they are, they are highly amused by this slave girl's attempts to avoid being violated by the cornu. They are incapable of empathizing with her. At least that was my thinking when I put them there!

 

[thehangingtree]

Yes, those two were easily amused! From their clothes, they are supposed to be a couple of high-class ladies out looking for some entertainment watching the naked people on their crosses. Being the pampered, self-centered types that they are, they are highly amused by this slave girl's attempts to avoid being violated by the cornu. They are incapable of empathizing with her. At least that was my thinking when I put them there!

Well count me in with those ladies being incapable of empathizing with her.

Tree

 

[Deleted member jedakk]

Well count me in with those ladies being incapable of empathizing with her.
View attachment 302472
Tree

You do get varied reactions from onlookers, as in the attached pic from a scene in a new story I'm working on. I've edited this a little to keep from giving away too much. Suffice it to say that there's something going on that the guys find amusing, but the girls find shocking.

And you'll have to read the story when I finish it to find out what that is, cause I'm not telling.

 

[Eulalia]

the one clutching her stomach is especially vivid -
and with the hints you've given my imagination's racing!

 

[thehangingtree]

You do get varied reactions from onlookers, as in the attached pic from a scene in a new story I'm working on. I've edited this a little to keep from giving away too much. Suffice it to say that there's something going on that the guys find amusing, but the girls find shocking.

And you'll have to read the story when I finish it to find out what that is, cause I'm not telling.

Hmm... different hair color... could it be (DELETED BY THE MODERATOR TREE)???

Tree

...that Tree is such a prick!!!