A Calm Simplicity

Updated 12/21/14: I've been re-reading some older blog posts and I came across this one. I want to add a little bit of modern commentary on it, now that I have a perspective from outside of that relationship. 

My relationship with Malignus was my first D/s relationship. I had a sort of unformed relationship that involved discipline before that and a play partner, but never a Dominant. I actually didn't know very much about D/s when I got involved in it, and most of what I knew I was taught by Malignus. At the time that I wrote this, I believed that in order to be a "good" submissive and to "fully" submit, I had to be able to take very severe spankings without warmups, with minimal encouragement, without moving or crying out to any degree and without the necessity of aftercare. 

I now don't think that this is actually a particularly healthy way to approach scenes, and I don't want anyone new to D/s or to spanking who might read this to think that this kind of play is normative or something that should be strived for. Please read this with the understanding that this scene had aspects of it that were very positive for me, but took place within the framework of an unhealthy relationship. My emphasis on fear of disappointing someone makes me feel sad when I re-read this. It has taken me a long time to get the idea out my head that my natural reactions to things are not something that will disappoint people. 

The rest of the text of this post has been left intact with no changes made to the text except this addition. 


This afternoon, Malignus decided to give me a spanking. There wasn't an established atmosphere for it: it simply began with "Let's hit you with stuff!" He started the spanking with a wooden spoon named Warren (the implement which featured heavily in this very old post and which I thought I lost once).  It's certainly not a kind implement. Once upon a time, I had designated my three least favorite implements as "The Trinity of Terror:  Warren, a small bladed but very thick lexan paddle and the nylon cane.

The Trinity of Terror, shown with Zelda, which is not relevant to this post.  The other three items very much are.

The spanking started off slowly, but I met it with some level of resistance. I don't mean I thrashed around or protested or anything extreme, but I let my body be tense, I moved around on the bed a bit and I continually cried out into the pillow. I leaned my body away from Malignus. My hands grabbed at the far end of the mattress in a tense desperation. There are a lot of different ways in which a spanking can go, and recently, for arbitrary or re-affirmative style spankings, we've been working on me meeting them passively and fully submitting to the spanking. This isn't the way that I generally react with other Tops, or in other atmospheres, but it's an important area that we've been working on. It's certainly been a challenge for me, though.

The spanking was very painful in a fiery, stinging way. The small surface area made one little section take all the force, and then another, and then another. At one point, I did something which is somewhat unusual for me during a spanking and I said something cogent: "This hurts!"

"Yes," Malignus acknowledged. "It does. But it's going to hurt less when you stop fighting against it. Let it break you down."

I tried to do exactly that, but I was just spinning my wheels. I got into a bit of a groove for a while, being still and keeping my body fairly relaxed. Malignus praised me for this, but I didn't really keep it up. The spanking picked up pace, and I found myself back to a state of struggle against the pain that was building. After things reached a crescendo, Malignus stopped and I took several deep breaths.

I'm going to digress for a moment. I'm willing to bet that you guys have seen Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The first time I saw that movie, I really started needing to pee about halfway through. Unfortunately, the movie didn't feel like it was about halfway through. It felt like it was almost over. I figured I could just wait until it ended. The movie would seem like it was about to end, and then start to seem like it was wrapping itself up, and then it would GO ON TO SOMETHING ELSE. Then that would wrap itself up, it would seem to be about over and then it would GO ON TO SOMETHING ELSE. Near the end I was becoming infinitely frustrated. I just wanted it to quit fake ending and just ACTUALLY END. In a movie, those moments that suggest that something is almost over when it really isn't are one of my pet peeves. They make me crazy. (By the way, I totally adore LOTR and I'm really excited to see The Hobbit this weekend. kthnx!)

In a spanking, however, those moments when you think that things are almost over and start to prepare yourself for them to be done, only to find out that you're closer to halfway through have a really strong, positive effect on me. They make me feel out of control in a very safe and very good way. The length and intensity of my spanking is not being determined by me. That's entirely up to my Dominant. It puts me in a very secure and submissive state of mind, and speeds up the process of breaking down my resistance. In my head, I call spankings that seem to stop, or appear to be reaching their end, only to begin again in earnest "Lord of the Rings spankings" because of the above story. (Note-- I realize I'm going to probably start getting some strange search terms showing up on my google analytics because of this).

Returning to my original story, that's what happened today. Malignus did, indeed, set down Warren. He had completed spanking me with it, just as I had originally believe. Instead of ending the spanking (which, if I was being honest with myself, I did not really want anyway) he reached under the bed and returned with the small, Lexan paddle pictured above. That paddle hurts a lot. It's one of the worst things I've been spanked with. I tried to be submissive to it, and to let it push me. Instead, I think that my resistance began to intensify (I say "I think" because this is the area of the spanking where my memory starts to get a little bit fuzzy, even though it was just eight hours ago or something). After giving me a handful of swats on my bottom, Malignus tapped the paddle against my thigh. I know that he does not do this to "line up his shot" like some people do. The purpose of pre-swat tapping has always been to get inside my head. I felt very vulnerable for the second before that stroke landed on my thigh, and then I felt a surge of pain that seemed to run through my entire body. And then another. And then another. And then another. I was really reacting to the pain, vocalizing and crying out in a manner that was probably excessive. Despite feeling wonderfully loved and taken care of, and being very aware of how much of my stress was dissipating, I was certainly not reaching my goal of calm and quiet submission. Then, for a minute, it was over.

I was actually quite relieved on some level when Malignus grabbed another implement. I knew that I wanted to give myself over to the spanking more, and I would have been very disappointed in my performance at that if it had stopped there. The implement which he had selected, however, was my nemesis: the nylon cane. I don't know if he intentionally used the three implements that I once selected as my least favorites or if it just worked out that way, but it was something that didn't even cross my mind until much later. At the moment, all I was aware of was the fact that I was going to be caned.

He did so rapidly, at a pace that I was largely unfamiliar with. He wasn't using "full" strokes, but the combined effective was overpowering. At first, I continued to struggle and cry out and then, all the sudden, everything stopped. I don't mean that the caning stopped-- it continued at the same pace and intensity. I stopped. My resistance went away and I just lay perfectly still. I fell silent.

"Good girl," Malignus praised me. "VERY good."

The caning continued, as did my passive state. It still hurt, but I was experiencing something which I've had limited experiences with: a powerful rush of endorphins. I have no idea for how long things continued. In my mind, it was both very long and very short. I felt really, really good. It was different than the drug-like experience I'd had the first time I fell into subspace, but equally wonderful. I felt entirely relaxed, but I also felt a joyful exuberance in my chest. I was really aware of what was happening to me and I was proud and excited. I felt simultaneously tranquilized and hyper stimulated. My brain was very confused, and it was awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Once things finally did stop, Malignus rubbed my back and comforted me for a long time. The good feeling lingered.

The spanking was still not entirely over.

After I was able to speak properly again (although I don't remember what I said), Malignus got one more cane-- a 1" acrylic cane that is probably the most weight bearing cane in our collection (strike that, known to man). He gave me six strokes with it, and while I wasn't entirely silent, I still took them well and felt the same surge of good feelings. After that, he gave me a really lovely cool down. Hours later, I'm still a little bit sore, and I'm still very smiley about it.
♥