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“This should be easy,” I said, wiping angrily at the tear tracks.
“Nothing about submission is easy. It requires a significant amount of trust.” Her fingers tucked the curled wisps of my hair back behind my ears as she spoke with great kindness and understanding. For as much of a sadist as she was, she was also incredibly tender.
“But I do trust you, Mistress Vixen. I really do.” I had tried to reason.
“I know you trust me with many things, Sadie. But submission is about giving over control in a way that isn’t easy. True submission can only begin when there is a conflict of wills.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” I scoffed. She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me to her as she spoke.
“It means that submission isn’t about doing only the things you want to do, or the things that are easy. It’s about giving over and trusting your Dominant in the hard things. Nothing about that is easy. And that’s what makes it such a gift. You’re doing well, Sadie. Truly. It takes time. Just remember that the purpose of this is to gain a better understanding of submissives. The purpose is to make you a better Dominant.”
Her words had weighed heavily on me throughout my training, but in the end, she had been right. I had learned to respect and cherish the gift of submission in a way that I never would have without her guidance. It shaped the Dominant I am today. Or at least it had until a few nights ago.
“Any questions?” Bex asked loudly, pulling me from my memories. My eyes scanned the crowd, noting that there were far more in this class than I had anticipated. I was glad Max had had the forethought to use the larger classroom setting. There were easily fifty people here tonight.
“I have a question,” a voice spoke from the back of the room. And then Septus stood up. “What are your suggestions for dealing with a Dominant who doesn’t view submissives that way?”
His question may have been for Bex, but his eyes were solely focused on me, like a goddamn laser.
“What, like a Dom who says submissives are weak and doormats? That kind of Dom?” a woman asked towards the front.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Septus answered. His eyes had not left mine for a single second. People were bound to notice. This was getting out of hand.
“RED FLAG!” voices rang out around the room.
“Turn tail and run!” Another person shouted.
“Fake Dom, Red Alert!” Someone snickered.
“And what if that Dominant has a surprisingly golden reputation?” he asked, cocking his head to the side as he refused to release my gaze.
“Um, quiet down, everyone. Quiet down. Hmm.” Bex’s voice, normally confident and strong, carried enough confusion to pull my eyes from Septus and back to her. She was looking between the two of us oddly. She had caught on. “I think that there is more nuance here than meets the eye.”
“How so?” someone asked.
“Well, I think it makes sense for your first response to be to GTFO. But, I think this is a good thing to discuss. What happens when our gut reaction — our emotional reaction — causes us to act without thought?” Bex was a bright woman, and I was stunned at how brilliantly she began turning the conversation.
“If we take a situation and immediately judge and run, then we are letting our emotions win. Now, I don’t mean in situations of personal safety. That’s a totally different story. Safety first, then process. But that’s the key here. How do you process through situations and choices like that? Let’s use Septus’ example. If you have a Dominant you’ve met who has a glowing reputation, but says something that belittles the submissive experience, what should you do?”
“Maybe they misspoke?” Erin answered from the side of the room, where she stood beside Max.
“Perhaps we should step back and realize that Dominants are also human. They fall prey to moments of weakness and mistakes, just like anyone else. So, if it were me, if I encountered such a situation or conversation, I would remove myself and calm down. When I felt more secure within myself and my own thoughts, I would approach them and have a civil conversation about their comments. If it turned out that they were steadfast in their rhetoric, then yeah, I’d be gone faster than shit. But I’d be willing to bet that you might get a different answer. From there, you simply proceed with caution and take your time. Which brings me on to point number two: sub frenzy.”
“I think I’d like to hear the Domme’s perspective on this,” Septus spoke, interrupting Bex’s next point.
“Okay,” Bex spoke slowly, clearly taken aback by Septus’ outburst, however polite it may have been. “Lady Luxe, what would you like to say on the matter?” She turned her back to the crowd as she posed the question to me, mouthing the words“Sorry”right after with a wince.
“I think what Bex has to say is valid. When you are vetting a new Dominant, impression matters. Words matter. But so does communication. We are all human and we all make mistakes, so taking the time to talk out how you feel about words that landed wrong shows a good understanding of proper communication, and makes you a safer play partner in the end.” The words flew through my lips quickly, but they were honest.
“And how do you view submissives, Lady Luxe?” Septus asked, his brow arched as his arms crossed over his muscular chest. He was calling me out, and the whole damn room knew it.
It was now or never. If he wanted to do this little talk publicly, then so be it.
“Submissives are, first and foremost, humans. They are all as different and unique as we all are outside of the kink community. But submissives are different than Dominants.” I paused briefly and heard him scoff, a smug grin spread across his face. “A Dominant holds power. They wield it over their chosen partner in a variety of forms and displays unique to them and them alone. But that power is not their own. That is what separates a safe Dominant from an unsafe one, in the end. The knowledge that the power they wield is not their own. That power belongs to the submissive. It is a gift, painstakingly honed and breathtakingly nurtured by the submissive, that is only handed over to a Dominant with pure and trusting consent. It is a Dominant’s job to take that power and to use it to help a submissive grow, to relax, to breathe, whatever the case may be. But a submissive? A submissive has to have a strength that comes from so deep within themselves that it is nearly untouchable, to be able to give power over in that way. They are the elite, the survivors, and they honor us Dominants with the grace and beauty of their submission with every command obeyed, with every scene performed. Submissives are not weak. Submissives are the strongest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I am honored and humbled by them each and every day.”
The words poured out of a place inside of me that held no ability for falsehood or narcissism.
“And what of male submissives, Lady Luxe?” he asked pointedly, but I noticed the smug look on his face had been replaced with one of curiosity.
