A concise tale, filled with the empathy and emotion you do so well.
And the resemblance to Alicia is certainly there in Gallows-Girl-Amy's picture.
Great response to the inspiration yet again - well done!
A concise tale, filled with the empathy and emotion you do so well.
Bob has also reminded me of a story I wrote on Phlebas' Great Pictures thread some years ago.
With Bob's own Alicia pictures still buzzing in my head,
View attachment 600298
this one, by Gallows Girl Amy:
View attachment 600299
nearly caused what Apostate would call an overload of my limbic system!
The Final Kiss
It had been a long, hot day out in the fields. Adam was glad to have been the overseer, driving the slaves to gather in the harvest, rather than having to work through the field like the slaves, laborious yard by laborious yard, wielding a heavy sickle. Even so, he’d been on his feet all day under the blazing sun, never able to rest, for the instant his eyes were off them, the slaves would certainly coast to a standstill.
Now, as the sun was sliding down toward the horizon, the entire field had been harvested, the slaves had been returned to their quarters, and he could go back to his Alicia.
He smiled at the thought of her. Beautiful but highly spirited, you never knew what she might get up to next, and the gods knew she’d almost got him into several scrapes with the Roman authorities. She was always on at him to join the rebels, to get shot of these bloody Romans.
But why would he want to do that? He had good, steady employment, a master who he liked and respected; he wasn’t wealthy but his income covered his outgoings, even Alicia’s capricious tastes. He had a beautiful fiancé. Why risk all that? It scared him a bit, when she talked like that. He wished she’d just settle down, marry him, and have his babies. He decided to push her to a decision that very evening. He wanted her more than the whole world. She was his whole world.
He passed the brow of the hill and the city came into view, smoke from hundreds of fires drifting up into the still, evening sky. The familiarity of home.
He grunted as he saw that, yet again, he’d have to pass crosses on the road. They’d been empty when he went out this morning, so the crucified would no doubt still be alive, pleading with him to help him as he went by. He’d do what he always did, and gaze studiously at the ground, ignoring them. That was exactly where he’d end up if he did as Alicia had suggested – the Romans showed no mercy to rebels. Now there were at least six there. Poor devils.
Not looking at them was as far as he dared go in terms of defying the Romans. He knew that the Romans scourged the rebels and nailed them, naked, to crosses precisely so that people like Adam should look at them. Look, and tremble.
So, as he drew close to the city gate, with crosses either side of him, he took a deep and philosophical interest in the little clouds of dust thrown up by his sandals as he trod.
“AAAAA-DAAAAAAAMMMMM!” Her agonised, tortured scream cut into his soul like a serrated sword, tearing at the very core of his being.
“Alicia? Alicia!!! NOOOOOOOO!”
She was barely recognisable. Her body was covered in deep, red-raw welts. Ugly iron spikes transfixed her hands and feet to a couple of wooden beams arranged in the classic Roman crux style. One of the Romans had evidently placed a circlet of thorns on her head, an extra torture reserved just for her, and now her face was as bloodstained as her body. A sign above her head proclaimed her to be a rebel.
“Fucking idiot!” A passing carter swore, forced to swerve as Adam raced across his path to Alicia’s cross.
“Oi! You! Get away from that cross!” roared a roman guard.
“She’s my fiancé, you must let me talk to her!”
“Got any weapons on you?” Adam stood, his own arms raised, as the guard searched him. “Only for a moment, then.” The guard stepped back a pace.
Alicia hung on fully outstretched arms, taking shallow breaths. The effort of calling his name had utterly exhausted her. She gazed at him, tears mingling with the blood on her face.
“Why? Alicia? Why?”
The bloodied body on the next cross stirred. She, too, was female.
“My……fault. She….tried….to….save…..me. She’s…..my……” there was a long pause, before the final word, “sister.”
Adam stared. “Anna? Are you Anna?”
Alicia and Anna both simply nodded.
Then Alicia spoke, barely a whisper. “No…choice…..sorry. Please….Adam?”
“Yes, my darling?”
“One….last…..kiss?”
View attachment 600299
As gently as he could, he took her battered body into his arms and kissed her. Her breath tasted foetid and foul, but he didn’t care. She returned his kiss, her dry tongue moistening as he caressed it. For long moments they remained like that, Anna and the Roman looking on, and then Alicia gasped, and her head rolled forward onto his shoulder.
“Alicia! Alicia!” He held her head up, but now the eyes that gazed back at him had no sight in them.
The soldier poked her experimentally with his spear. “Come on, mate. The bitch is dead. On your way.”
Something snapped inside Adam’s head, and he launched a furious assault upon the Roman. Adam heard the bone crack in the Roman’s neck, and Adam didn’t care as the Roman slumped to the ground.
He didn’t care when the other Romans seized him.
He didn't care when he was himself condemned to crucifixion.
He didn’t care when they stripped him naked.
He didn’t care when they stretched him out on a cross, he just passively lay there, awaiting his fate. And as the nails smashed into his flesh and bone, his agony was Alicia's agony.
He knew he had to suffer for long and terrible hours, but then he’d be with his Alicia again.
You want short?
Three nails, one hammer
All they have to offer is
Blood, sweat, tears and death
Oh yeah, Moore? Let's see you do a haiku.Roll over Winston ... Jeeeez
Trully wonderful story, very emotional and sensitive. Bravo SirBob has also reminded me of a story I wrote on Phlebas' Great Pictures thread some years ago.
With Bob's own Alicia pictures still buzzing in my head,
View attachment 600298
this one, by Gallows Girl Amy:
View attachment 600299
nearly caused what Apostate would call an overload of my limbic system!
The Final Kiss
It had been a long, hot day out in the fields. Adam was glad to have been the overseer, driving the slaves to gather in the harvest, rather than having to work through the field like the slaves, laborious yard by laborious yard, wielding a heavy sickle. Even so, he’d been on his feet all day under the blazing sun, never able to rest, for the instant his eyes were off them, the slaves would certainly coast to a standstill.
Now, as the sun was sliding down toward the horizon, the entire field had been harvested, the slaves had been returned to their quarters, and he could go back to his Alicia.
He smiled at the thought of her. Beautiful but highly spirited, you never knew what she might get up to next, and the gods knew she’d almost got him into several scrapes with the Roman authorities. She was always on at him to join the rebels, to get shot of these bloody Romans.
But why would he want to do that? He had good, steady employment, a master who he liked and respected; he wasn’t wealthy but his income covered his outgoings, even Alicia’s capricious tastes. He had a beautiful fiancé. Why risk all that? It scared him a bit, when she talked like that. He wished she’d just settle down, marry him, and have his babies. He decided to push her to a decision that very evening. He wanted her more than the whole world. She was his whole world.
He passed the brow of the hill and the city came into view, smoke from hundreds of fires drifting up into the still, evening sky. The familiarity of home.
He grunted as he saw that, yet again, he’d have to pass crosses on the road. They’d been empty when he went out this morning, so the crucified would no doubt still be alive, pleading with him to help him as he went by. He’d do what he always did, and gaze studiously at the ground, ignoring them. That was exactly where he’d end up if he did as Alicia had suggested – the Romans showed no mercy to rebels. Now there were at least six there. Poor devils.
Not looking at them was as far as he dared go in terms of defying the Romans. He knew that the Romans scourged the rebels and nailed them, naked, to crosses precisely so that people like Adam should look at them. Look, and tremble.
So, as he drew close to the city gate, with crosses either side of him, he took a deep and philosophical interest in the little clouds of dust thrown up by his sandals as he trod.
“AAAAA-DAAAAAAAMMMMM!” Her agonised, tortured scream cut into his soul like a serrated sword, tearing at the very core of his being.
“Alicia? Alicia!!! NOOOOOOOO!”
She was barely recognisable. Her body was covered in deep, red-raw welts. Ugly iron spikes transfixed her hands and feet to a couple of wooden beams arranged in the classic Roman crux style. One of the Romans had evidently placed a circlet of thorns on her head, an extra torture reserved just for her, and now her face was as bloodstained as her body. A sign above her head proclaimed her to be a rebel.
“Fucking idiot!” A passing carter swore, forced to swerve as Adam raced across his path to Alicia’s cross.
“Oi! You! Get away from that cross!” roared a roman guard.
“She’s my fiancé, you must let me talk to her!”
“Got any weapons on you?” Adam stood, his own arms raised, as the guard searched him. “Only for a moment, then.” The guard stepped back a pace.
Alicia hung on fully outstretched arms, taking shallow breaths. The effort of calling his name had utterly exhausted her. She gazed at him, tears mingling with the blood on her face.
“Why? Alicia? Why?”
The bloodied body on the next cross stirred. She, too, was female.
“My……fault. She….tried….to….save…..me. She’s…..my……” there was a long pause, before the final word, “sister.”
Adam stared. “Anna? Are you Anna?”
Alicia and Anna both simply nodded.
Then Alicia spoke, barely a whisper. “No…choice…..sorry. Please….Adam?”
“Yes, my darling?”
“One….last…..kiss?”
View attachment 600299
As gently as he could, he took her battered body into his arms and kissed her. Her breath tasted foetid and foul, but he didn’t care. She returned his kiss, her dry tongue moistening as he caressed it. For long moments they remained like that, Anna and the Roman looking on, and then Alicia gasped, and her head rolled forward onto his shoulder.
“Alicia! Alicia!” He held her head up, but now the eyes that gazed back at him had no sight in them.
The soldier poked her experimentally with his spear. “Come on, mate. The bitch is dead. On your way.”
Something snapped inside Adam’s head, and he launched a furious assault upon the Roman. Adam heard the bone crack in the Roman’s neck, and Adam didn’t care as the Roman slumped to the ground.
He didn’t care when the other Romans seized him.
He didn't care when he was himself condemned to crucifixion.
He didn’t care when they stripped him naked.
He didn’t care when they stretched him out on a cross, he just passively lay there, awaiting his fate. And as the nails smashed into his flesh and bone, his agony was Alicia's agony.
He knew he had to suffer for long and terrible hours, but then he’d be with his Alicia again.
Temptation indeed!I expect she'll be crucified.
The more I think about it, the more I'm determined to do it. I'm damn well going to fuck her. We might hang on our crosses together................
The more I think about it, the more I'm determined to do it. I'm damn well going to fuck her. We might hang on our crosses together................
Very interesting story with nice illustrationHere is one from me. I Always have linked the pic to some to the final settlement of a political conflict in Roman times. Vae victis!
View attachment 606338
Octavian was very suspicious about women. Of course, as a man in every uncia, he was always in for a good ride in the cubicula, with a willing pulla. But that was on another level.
Octavian was married, but marriage was a matter of politics, of allying families in their struggle to power. Yet, a husband always had to take care that his wife did serve his interests, and not too much those of her own family. Even if, in Roman law, the wife was hardly more than a possession of her husband, he better would look behind him sometimes, to see whether she was still backing him.
Octavian was a harsh politician, who did not eschew to have his opponents and critics murdered. But he stuck to the tradition to protect the family of his victims, by arranging for his victim’s widows a new marriage, to a member of one of his follower’s families.
Then, all his suspicions came together in one person : Cleopatra! The way she took his former ally Marc Antony at her leash! She even got him so far to cede parts of Roman territories to Egypt! Octavian was on one hand very grateful to that deal, since he now even did not need to invent a casus belli to convince the Senate to start a war against Egypt. Winning this war and adding wealthy Egypt to Roman territory would make him immensely popular, and it would pave his way to absolute power! On the other hand, Marc Antony’s submission convinced his belief how venomous women could be!
Octavian firmly controlled all European territories of Rome west of Greece. Marc Antony was in control over Greece, Asia Minor and Libya. There was one territory that was still uncertain : Africa. Octavian had taken it over from Lepidus, the third man from the former triumvirate. But Octavian had not yet purged Africa from opponents. A serious threat, since Africa was rather Egypt and Marc Antony oriented.
In Carthage, there was a large Egyptian community. Octavian would have to make a clean sweep there before he could campaign against of Egypt. With the help of Numidians, who hated both Egyptians and Carthagers, he had the homes of powerful enemies raided. Among them, the head of the Egyptian community and two aristocrat members of the Marc Antony party. They would be publically executed as an example, in order to instigate fear. And since Cleopatra, Octavian did not take risks with their women. All three men were married with a wife from Lepidus’ family. Lepidus was still alive, but living as Octavian’s captive in Italy. He could do nothing to protect the lives of his nieces. All three women were sentenced to be crucified together with their husbands.
So, unaware, Cleopatra had instigated Octavian to upgrade the status of women, since he now acknowledged their political threat to an equal level as of their husbands. A deadly upgrade, since for these three women, it meant nothing more than suffering a days long agony on the cross, next to their husbands. A humiliating public ordeal for these once esteemed members of the city’s society.
It was ironic, that gender equality in the Roman Empire had to start to start with an execution, but it had to start somewhere!
It was ironic, that gender equality in the Roman Empire had to start to start with an execution, but it had to start somewhere!
Missed this, Bob, sorry!IVDAEA CAPTA XI
Gabriella was caught wearing a legionary's cloak - a gift from a rebel, spoils of war and that sort of thing - pretty damning evidence at the best of times, to say nothing of the worst. So they tore her off a strip, took her name, mistranscribed it and inflicted the usual penalty. And as a concession to Judaic law concerning modesty, they tore the cloak off a strip too so that, like the scapegoat in the desert, she might wear the emblem of guilt. Ironia Romana.
Ironia Romana = Roman irony. Jewish religious law provides for the collective burden of guilt to be imposed upon a goat, with a coloured cloth, symbolising that guilt, wound around its horns. It is then banished into the wilderness, where after wandering aimlessly, it dies abandoned in the desert. Since it bears the human attribute of sin, some suggest this as the origin of the mythical Wandering Jew.
The scapegoat was made famous by Holman Hunt's painting of the subject - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...280px-William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_Scapegoat.jpg - and has come to mean anyone who carries the burden of another's guilt. The most famous scapegoat was a Jew named Jesus, who instead of a coloured cloth around his head wore a bloody crown of thorns. The irony is in the Romans' unwitting parody of a symbolic Jewish ceremony.
And Capella is Latin for a she-goat...
That is a superb back-story for that image, Lox!Here is one from me. I Always have linked the pic to some to the final settlement of a political conflict in Roman times. Vae victis!
View attachment 606338
Octavian was very suspicious about women. Of course, as a man in every uncia, he was always in for a good ride in the cubicula, with a willing pulla. But that was on another level.
Octavian was married, but marriage was a matter of politics, of allying families in their struggle to power. Yet, a husband always had to take care that his wife did serve his interests, and not too much those of her own family. Even if, in Roman law, the wife was hardly more than a possession of her husband, he better would look behind him sometimes, to see whether she was still backing him.
Octavian was a harsh politician, who did not eschew to have his opponents and critics murdered. But he stuck to the tradition to protect the family of his victims, by arranging for his victim’s widows a new marriage, to a member of one of his follower’s families.
Then, all his suspicions came together in one person : Cleopatra! The way she took his former ally Marc Antony at her leash! She even got him so far to cede parts of Roman territories to Egypt! Octavian was on one hand very grateful to that deal, since he now even did not need to invent a casus belli to convince the Senate to start a war against Egypt. Winning this war and adding wealthy Egypt to Roman territory would make him immensely popular, and it would pave his way to absolute power! On the other hand, Marc Antony’s submission convinced his belief how venomous women could be!
Octavian firmly controlled all European territories of Rome west of Greece. Marc Antony was in control over Greece, Asia Minor and Libya. There was one territory that was still uncertain : Africa. Octavian had taken it over from Lepidus, the third man from the former triumvirate. But Octavian had not yet purged Africa from opponents. A serious threat, since Africa was rather Egypt and Marc Antony oriented.
In Carthage, there was a large Egyptian community. Octavian would have to make a clean sweep there before he could campaign against of Egypt. With the help of Numidians, who hated both Egyptians and Carthagers, he had the homes of powerful enemies raided. Among them, the head of the Egyptian community and two aristocrat members of the Marc Antony party. They would be publically executed as an example, in order to instigate fear. And since Cleopatra, Octavian did not take risks with their women. All three men were married with a wife from Lepidus’ family. Lepidus was still alive, but living as Octavian’s captive in Italy. He could do nothing to protect the lives of his nieces. All three women were sentenced to be crucified together with their husbands.
So, unaware, Cleopatra had instigated Octavian to upgrade the status of women, since he now acknowledged their political threat to an equal level as of their husbands. A deadly upgrade, since for these three women, it meant nothing more than suffering a days long agony on the cross, next to their husbands. A humiliating public ordeal for these once esteemed members of the city’s society.
It was ironic, that gender equality in the Roman Empire had to start to start with an execution, but it had to start somewhere!
No worries, Wragg - you've been very busy with your own story!Missed this, Bob, sorry!
I missed a real treat, too!
A very effective vignette - I really like the working in of the idea of ironia Romana and connecting it to the scapegoat idea. Nicely done, and with an economy of words. It's almost poetic. Wonderful manip as well.like the scapegoat in the desert, she might wear the emblem of guilt. Ironia Romana.
Either desperate or a hopeless romantic - a short story that gives us a cliffhanger ending. Nicely done, OS!The more I think about it, the more I'm determined to do it. I'm damn well going to fuck her. We might hang on our crosses together................
As good an explanation as any, I suppose.So, unaware, Cleopatra had instigated Octavian to upgrade the status of women, since he now acknowledged their political threat to an equal level as of their husbands. A deadly upgrade, since for these three women, it meant nothing more than suffering a days long agony on the cross, next to their husbands.
Thanks for the feedback, Jolly.A very effective vignette - I really like the working in of the idea of ironia Romana and connecting it to the scapegoat idea. Nicely done, and with an economy of words. It's almost poetic. Wonderful manip as well.