• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

The Greek Girls

Go to CruxDreams.com
apostate630

apostate630

Administrator
Staff member
Update 12/6/09. After months of inaction I'm restoring this thread. The hacker attack of '07 was dwarfed by the site wipe in the summer of '09.

I've been working on this story for longer than was necessary or wise or sane.

But I finally finished it. Make of it what you will.

P.S. I've made minor changes, and uploaded that version. I'm going to be doing that for some time to come.

All and sundry are welcome to cuss me for doing so.

Update, 1:10 p.m. EDT, 9/22/07.

Update, 11/7/07

By now you all know about the hacker attack on CruxForums.

The folks who post here must needs re-post anything posted here in the last two years.

Tonight I'm starting that.

Here's The Greek Girls, The Extended Version.

Crux fans will be disappointed. The 'extended' part is a sex scene on a beach, not endless accounts of the Girls' torments on the cross.

Make of it what you will.
 

Attachments

  • Greek Girls, Final Version.pdf
    184 KB · Views: 305
Let me be the first to say that this is an excellent story! I've been reading this as it's been developing over months now and I know how hard Apostate has agonized over it. It's a real intelligent piece of fiction that fits so well into its historical context that it could almost be true. It has potential to become a real classic of the crux genre.

Jedakk


Hey. Don't get hysterical.

Thanks hugely Jedakk. For your approval, and your assistance.
 
A really excellent story! Not just a flimsy attemt to set the stage for the crucifixion itself but a complex historical setting with believable characters. I can imagine that it took considerable efffort to write it. Congratulations!
 
I forgot to post here. Sorry about that.

I've been privy to this story for over a year now and watched as it's slowly evolved and know the hair pulling work that Apostate has put into it. So, congrats to a job well done!

I know he's working on tweaking a few things with the story and I'm looking forward to being one of the few who will be illustrating it.



-WW
 
(Update, 11/8/07, post-hacker attack.)

I should have posted these with the story, but I've been diverted by realspace stuff away from things crux lately. I've also posted them on Crux Foundation, but they should be here too, as well as some background.

The idea for The Greek Girls came to me a few years back when Yusebby came out with cxy019. The crimes listed on these wretched women's tituli translate as MURDERER REBEL, but upon closer examination these are probably not slaves who poisoned their mistress. Their hair is luxuriously long, not cut short as was common for female slaves, and their private parts are carefully depilated. These are two Roman-era aristocrats who wound up crucified, a punishment reserved for slaves and the lower classes.

How? Why?

I think I figured out a plausible scenario.

Some months ago I asked Jastrow to do a 3D version of Yusebby's drawing. The resulting "Greek Girls" closely matches how I imagine Adonia an Callia hung on their crosses, save that the story takes place during the day. What the hell--it is an unambiguously hot image.

Lastly, I knew that Egyptian-style mummies of the Roman period included funerary portraits of the deceased, many amazingly lifelike. Wikipedia has a gallery of such

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits

The two I've posted below date from a century or two after the time the story is set, but they closely resemble how I imagine my doomed heroines looked.

Enjoy.
 
WelshWebb said:
I've been privy to this story for over a year now and watched as it's slowly evolved and know the hair pulling work that Apostate has put into it. So, congrats to a job well done!

I know he's working on tweaking a few things with the story and I'm looking forward to being one of the few who will be illustrating it.
-WW
Click to expand...

Folks, it's a bit more than that. I commissioned a series of crux drawings from WW, and at one point in describing what I wanted he asked, "Why don't you write a story, and I'll illustrate it?"

Yusebby's pic was the inspiration, but it was WW's dare that got me to actually write a finished work of fiction.

Thanks, WelshWebb. Hugely. And your illustrations of The Greek Girls will be masterpieces.
 
For what it's worth, I've attached a revised version of the story at the top of the page. No major changes, just cleaning up a few things I didn't quite like.
 
I note that the funerary portraits that I named Adonia and Callia had few takers.

Fair enough. The ladies were lookers, but they are not naked, nor are they nailed to crosses.

But recall these were paintings affixed to the faces of Egyptian mummies of the Roman era. You are looking into the eyes of people who lived and died millennia ago. I find this haunting as all get out.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits

Not for everybody's tastes, I reckon.
 
Apostate--

The portraits are displayed as thumbnails on the Cruxforums message display (at least for some browsers?), and that glimpse might be enough for most of the viewers.

The portraits are attractive, and show some personality, and they are excellent references. In fact that link was to the biggest batch of such historical portraits that I've seen.

I would guess that most of the artists looking in did download the images for references.

Yusebby
 
Yusebby said:
Apostate--

The portraits are displayed as thumbnails on the Cruxforums message display (at least for some browsers?), and that glimpse might be enough for most of the viewers.

The portraits are attractive, and show some personality, and they are excellent references. In fact that link was to the biggest batch of such historical portraits that I've seen.

I would guess that most of the artists looking in did download the images for references.

Yusebby
Click to expand...

I'd like to think so, Yusebby.

Did you use some? ;-)
 
Apostate--

I've not been actively finishing crux pictures recently. But I have been saving up art references for . . . research. Yes, research. 8)
 
Here's hoping that your research, yeah, that's it, research, bears fruit in the near future.

Yusebby, us talent-free types depend on you. ;-)
 
He looked at Callia, and found her looking at him. He gently lowered Adonia's face, hurried over.

"I . . . always . . . was . . . jealous that . . . Adonia . . . won the . . . roll of . . . the dice . . . that morning. . . kiss . . . me . . . "

Sinon kissed her.

She laughed, softly, huskily.

"Sinon . . . we are . . . partially avenged . . . the seal . . . tell Caesar . . . "

"I will," he wept.

She smiled at him and breathed, "I . . . haven't . . . decided. . . what . . . part of . . . you . . . I'll . . . miss . . . the most . . . your mind . . . or . . . your tongue . . . "

She paused, and gasped ". . . oh my . . . "

And died.

Algabal is the first artist other than Welsh Webb to illustrate a scene from The Greek Girls. This is what Sinon sees when he looks at Callia and finds her looking at him. Abertha's potion has long since erased her agony, and she's near the end of a euphoric descent into death, hence the winsome expression on her face. The rope of saliva hanging from her mouth is a nicely realistic detail that had not occurred to me.

Most important to me, Algabal has captured the exact posture I imagined for my luckless heroines. I ran this one by Master of Nails, and he considers it the hottest crux image he's ever seen. With all due respect to Welsh Webb, Jedakk, and a select group of other artists, I agree.

Enjoy.

Update: here's Algabal's finished vesion. I still think the Work In Progress was improbably hot, but he wishes only his finished drawings to be shown, and I bow to the artist's will.
 
Updating a post does not alert them that hang here that there's something new. Therefore be aware that I've reposted Algabal's Callia drawing.

I still think the original draft was hot as exploding hydrogen, but this is the one he wants the public to see.

It is thermonuclear. Enjoy.
 
"Dear spectator: If you´re going to watch me die, at least you can look me in the eye."

A reverse trope from the more common "squeezing her eyes shut and trying to ignore all those staring eyes." I like it, Algabal.
 
apostate630 said:
Updating a post does not alert them that hang here that there's something new. Therefore be aware that I've reposted Algabal's Callia drawing.

I still think the original draft was hot as exploding hydrogen, but this is the one he wants the public to see.

It is thermonuclear. Enjoy.
Click to expand...
algabal said:
If you want to get a closer look at her, here´s the file at higher resolution.
Click to expand...
So I'm curious as to what these various versions are, @Apostate and @algabal lose to the sands of time as these images are on this forum!
 
Communication between Apostate and me went through my yahoo mail (don't laugh. It was only mildly out of date to have a yahoo in 2007).
That account actually still works but while being sold on several times they purged the old archives so the messages are gone.

Then of course there were private messages on Crux Foundation. And that's gone too.

Now if I can find the complete original work folder maybe I can figure out what they were. They ought to be on an old external HDD somewhere...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom