Domination Games The Cabal - An Introduction From the Random House Webster's Dictionary: cabal (ka-bal'), n. 1. a small group of secret plotters. 2. the secret plots or schemes of such a group. The Cabal is a very secret, very selective and highly specialized social organization. Cabal memberships are tendered only to people of like interest who come highly recommended by active members. Prospective members are then thoroughly vetted and must be approved by each of three other active members who are experienced at checking out initiates. Complete physical examinations and medical record reviews are required of each candidate to prevent the slightest safety or health hazard to the other members. Candidates who pass these in-depth reviews are allowed to take the Cabal "entrance examinations". These exams test knowledge of current events, social graces, as well as testing out certain practical skills. Candidates must acquit themselves well and present themselves positively, regardless of situation, be it polite conversation or other types of interactions. Upon passing these tests, candidates are given the opportunity to take the final initiation. Initiation is the ultimate test of a candidate's suitability for membership. Membership in the Cabal is prized among those who know of its existence because it provides safe contacts who share a common interest and it also provides safe places in which to share that common interest. The Cabal exists to bring together true devotees of the D/S, B&D and S&M lifestyles. Mistresses and slaves, masters and switches all find acceptance, companionship and safety, both to person and to reputation, in the select community that is, the Cabal. In particular, the Cabal is dedicated to the more sexual aspects of the lifestyles. Candidates and members are expected to enjoy and excel at all aspects of sexual play. Indeed, one purpose of the initiation process is to ensure that prospective members can enjoy and be enjoyed within that context. Candidates who are primarily into pain, dealing or receiving, or who do not consider sex and orgasm to be a regular and vital part of a scene's play are ordinarily weeded out quickly. Our story is about one candidate who had avoided being weeded out. A unique aspect of the Cabal Charter Rules is that members must maintain and periodically demonstrate proficiency at both sides of top/bottom scene equation. New members can choose to be primarily dominant or primarily submissive once they achieve full membership, but the vetting process tests their aptitude for both roles. To be accepted for membership, initiates must be skilled and able to carry off a successful scene in either role, to the satisfaction of the other player or players in the scene. Submissives who can not dominate on occasion can be boring and dominants who do not taste the emotion felt by a bottom from time to time may lose touch with the caring sensitivity the Cabal Charter mandates. Therefore, all members are required to participate in at least one scene as the dominant player and one scene as the submissive player every year to maintain their membership. This requirement ensures that every member respects and understands the effects each role has on the other participants in a session. Annual switch scenes for members who exclusively or almost exclusively play only top or only bottom, are often open demonstrations for the rest of the membership. Committed submissives acting in a dominant role have rare insight into the mind of a bottom. Masters and Mistresses are always eager to learn new ways to torment and titillate their favorite slaves. Who would know better than a submissive what really reaches the soul of a bottom in a scene? Normally dominant members, submitting as a bottom, are often stoic in the extreme. Such behavior, although it is not grounds for the individual to repeat the required session, does not achieve the desired goal of keeping the requalifying dominant in touch with the feelings of the bottom. The top assigned to dominate the testee must prepare the session carefully and often must work particularly hard to reach into the hidden psyche of the testee. Assigned dominants who fail to break through that reserve lose face and reputation among the other members, particularly among the bottoms. Therefore, the sessions in which regular tops submit for their annual qualifications are among the most intense, demanding and imaginative scenes that the membership is likely to see. The only limitation the Charter imposes for these annual switch sessions, other than that the safety of all involved is never compromised, is that committed couples are never forced to "switch" roles for the amusement of the membership. Nor are they asked to participate in their other half's scene. As indicated earlier, the switch sessions can be uniquely intense and emotional. Some buried anger or hurt might surface during the session and those aspects of even semi-public relationships are simply too private to parade for outside eyes. The Cabal's doctrine of safety includes the safety of true lovers' privacy. The other players in mandatory switch sessions are selected by either blind draw from volunteers who want to scene with that member or by special request from the switching member with the consent of the Cabal's officers. The Spring Games - Opening Ceremonies The spring air was warm, fortunately for the ten women standing rigidly at attention in the buff on the floor of the open air arena. Seated around the arena on the ground and on benches were the various dominants and submissives who were here to view the upcoming spectacle. It was the first weekend retreat of the Cabal since before winter and the turnout at the secluded mountain estate, owned by one of the wealthier members, was heavy. Per custom, each member had declared themselves upon arrival at the gate. They could call themselves dominant, submissive or switchable, although the latter was usually frowned upon for members arriving stag. Preferably, switches arrived at least pairs. If the numbers of dominants and submissives were too uneven, then the single switches were the first ones asked to change. Those asked to change were given preferred treatment at a future retreat. Today, there was a good mix of members playing top and bottom for the weekend, so the folks looking to play the field and to "fill in" in an ongoing scene had not been asked to declare themselves. There were no mandatory scenes or initiations scheduled for this meeting, so the fun would be less structured and a little less fierce, except for the games. Or so most members thought. Incorrectly. The slave girls who stood at attention, their skin glistening in the sunshine from sweat and sun screen, were part of the entertainment. Today, they would compete in a series of tests for the opportunity to play the 'big game' Sunday afternoon, to win the opportunity to play for the special prize that would be awarded to the ultimate victor. In the past, these prizes often included leather ware, special bondage gear or other toys, but always, the winner was given a Cabal-style get away weekend with the Cabal member of their choice, in the role of their choice. Only two of the ten women would compete in the 'big game' the next afternoon. The other eight women would 'pay' for their failure by being the 'demonstration dummies' for tonight's entertainments and exhibitions. The earlier a girl was eliminated, the more strenuous and demanding the scene was promised for her that night. The women were all beautiful, well conditioned and sleek. Many long time members were surprised to see Mistress Gemma among the contestants. The tall, elegant black woman with the Oxford English accent was an avid and dedicated top. Her presence among these women, all but two of whom would face a night and day of submission and discipline, was completely unexpected. To the best any of the members at the arena could recall, Gemma bottomed out once a year and that was it. In fact, she had embarrassed the last two tops to work her by not breaking her reserve during the session. She had apparently not even orgasmed. The explanation for this surprise was known only to Gemma and three other people. Mistress Rayna, a career dominant and a long time member of the Cabal, her primary slave, Stefan, and Gemma's favorite slave, Alex. At the last meeting, the two Mistresses had traded slaves and made a bet about which of them could break the training of the other's slave first. The loser had to pay a forfeit of the winner's choosing. Gemma had lost, and it had been her own fault. Alex had been ill at the time. She had either not listened to him or had not been sensitive to his condition. He had been in no condition to take what Rayna had dished out, even though, as he told her later, Rayna was not nearly as skilled as HIS Mistress. She had been furious with herself for putting him in that position, for not taking greater care of someone who obviously loved her. She planned to win this competition for herself and for Alex. Then, she'd see about evening up the score. Rayna could not have missed that Alex was not well and Rayna should have terminated the scene. That she did not stop, and then had demanded payment of the forfeit further infuriated Gemma. The other women were a mixed bag of experience and skill. Five of the women were new members attending their first retreat since initiation. They were the unknowns in the puzzle. Gemma did not think they were ready for what the games would require. Of the other four, Gemma had been served by two of the remaining four women and knew their strengths and, more importantly, their weaknesses. She could handle them. The other two were longtime members who normally submitted only to their beloved Masters. They were not naturally submissive, otherwise, and would not surrender easily. The highly public and humiliating penalties typically imposed on the losers by the Entertainment Mistress, while highly erotic to most submissives, would spur these two to greater efforts to avoid them. These women were entered to win the prize for their Masters. They were both previous winners of the games and would be her principle competition. The Master of Ceremonies called the games to order. He stood between the women and the audience, and welcoming all to the games. The games, he explained, were loosely patterned on the Olympic Games, and would combine physical ability and sexual ability in the competitions. The games also included as many aspects of bondage, dominance, submission and discipline that the organizers could work in. While he spoke, male slaves, under the close supervision of a senior Mistress, put ten short, three legged stools in a large circle around the periphery of the arena playing field. The circle was about fifty feet in diameter when the Mistress in Charge herded the setup slaves off the stage. When the arena was clear of male slaves, the Master announced the opening ceremonies and first competition of the Spring Games. The women slaves were circled in center of the arena. Each woman was given a syringe filled with a heated lubricant. "Each contestant will please prepare the asshole of the slave in front of her. You may use as much or as little as you please." The woman in front of Gemma was a very petite blond that Gemma had never met before. She could not have made five feet tall if she stood on tip-toe. One of the new ones, Gemma thought. Gemma knew what was coming and decided to be generous. This one would not be in the competition very long. She popped the nozzle of the syringe into the girl, drawing a surprised shriek, then emptied the entire syringe into and around her anus. The slave behind Gemma was not nearly as accommodating. Gemma felt the syringe slide between her cheeks and the barest dab of the lubricant squeezed out and none of it even near her asshole. Gemma kept her cheeks together to try and get the maximum benefit of it for what was to come. The women were ordered to the circle of stools, each woman standing at one stool. The seats were no more than eighteen inches off the ground. The seats were more like bicycle saddles than chairs, very slender and intended to allow a woman's buttocks to slide down on either side of the seating surface as she lowered onto it. In the center of each saddle, was a anal probe of one type or another. Butt plugs of various lengths and widths adorned some while more ordinary shaped dildoes were attached to others. The sizes of the dildoes varied, too, from the merest "thumb-sized" tickler to a huge, thick implement that would challenge many women's fist, let alone their backsides. The textures varied from smooth to knobby to little spines intended to irritate going in, going out and while inserted. The rules of the Opening Procession were similar to those for Musical Chairs. The slaves would jog around the perimeter while the processional music played. When it stopped, they would have to seat themselves, fully, on the stool nearest them. Disputes over who got any specific stool would be dealt with (firmly!) by the Mistress in Charge. Failure to seat the implement fully within 2 minutes of the music stopping disqualified the contestant. Gemma looked carefully for the layout of the probes. She wanted to get a true butt plug. Not because she particularly liked the things up her ass, but because she knew from past experience what often followed the procession. She specifically wanted to avoid the huge rubber dick and the small thumb plug. The music started and the women started off at a quick jog. Gemma was a slender woman, and her curves were sleek rather than rounded. When she was running was one of the times Gemma did not regret that she was not just a little more gifted. Her small, high breasts did not bounce uncomfortably when she ran as some of the other women's did as they moved around the circle. The music stopped suddenly and Gemma made a last second dash to the nearest butt plug. Unfortunately, it was the biggest of that type of toy in use today, but she knew she had to get it. Her bottom's lubrication was almost gone, dissolved in the sweat she had worked up in the afternoon sun, but she settled herself quickly into a deep, wide legged ballet stance over the stool, dropped down until she felt the tip slide between her buttocks and then shifted her body to align the plug. Taking a deep breath, she relaxed and permitted herself to drop her weight onto the probe. Halfway down, she screamed her anger and pain; the lubricant was gone and she still had the widest part to seat. Other women answered her as other unlucky contestants worked their bottoms onto the saddles. Swallowing her pain, she forced herself down again, this time until she felt the bulb of the plug enter and her ass start to close over the narrower part. She sighed as she felt the saddle touch her butt. Blondie was also seated. She looked none the worse for wear. The bitch who had not properly lubricated her, one of the previous winners, was also seated. Gemma had passed up the 6 inch, life-like fake cock that bitch had stuffed up her guts to get the plug. One of the new members had gotten the king dong and was not getting anywhere with it. She sat atop the tip of it, trying to force it in, but had only succeeded in getting the head inserted when the timer sounded. She was handcuffed and lead away by the Mistress in Charge to await the evening's festivities. The others were told to remain seated for their next instructions. Memories 1 Gemma Thomas sat on the little stool as the girl who failed to get a dildo up her butt was lead away. She concentrated on the deep breathing exercises she instructed her slaves to use so that their muscles would relax. She sincerely wished she had not gotten the plug with the two and a half inch bulb. The staff male slaves were running about with sports drink for the remaining contestants to prevent dehydration. Her eyes slipped to the audience and found Alex, her Master for this hellish weekend, seated among the other assembled members watching the games. All the players were required to have an "owner" for the weekend. The most significant reason was to call a halt to the activities for the protection of their slave. Slaves were as competitive as anyone. Since there were only two overseers for the games, the slaves might hurt themselves if no one else watched over them continuously. Alex had agreed to serve in this capacity for her. Alex was always ready when she needed or wanted him. Her mind flew back to that day almost two years ago when she had first met Alex Marino. In her day life, Dr. Gemma Thomas, PhD, teaches physical therapy at a large Midwestern university. One of her students had just come into her office to consult with her on a case. The girl was overseeing the therapy exercises of a young male student with a very serious knee injury. That student had been Alex Marino. Gemma had arrived at university college after earning her doctoral degree in England. It was while attending medical university that she discovered S&M and female domination as a lifestyle. The talent, determination and implacable forcefulness that bullied and drove her patients back to health found full expression in a D/S scene with a male slave at her feet and a whip, strap or paddle in her hand. After finishing her post doctoral work, she had accepted the position as a teacher and clinic director at the college where she still worked. Over the next seven years, she had become tenured and was now well positioned for full professorship in the next year or two. Alex Marino was a college wrestler who had left his right leg behind when the rest of him had tried to move. The leg all but parted at the knee. The prognosis for recovery was poor. The referring doctor's report indicated that only with the greatest force of will and commitment to therapy on Alex's part was there any chance of him walking normally again, let alone ever being physically active again. The report went on to say that the knee would never be strong enough to tolerate the stresses of competitive wrestling again. The only dissenting opinion was given by Alex. No one had convinced him. The student therapist was concerned, not because Alex wasn't doing the exercises, but because he would not stop doing them. Gemma observed the next appointment between the wrestler and her student. After reading the doctor's report and seeing the x-rays of the knee, she was amazed to find the young man's recovery was so much further along, physically, than the pain of his injury should have permitted. Alex was a striking young man, Gemma had noted. Not tall, he stood a mere five feet seven inches tall. Gemma was four inches taller than that in her stocking feet. In her every day heels, she topped him by more than seven inches; in her full battle, bitch goddess regalia, she would top him by ten inches, easily. With the exception of his injured leg, he had the lithe, compact musculature and physical coordination demanded by his sport. Determination and strength of will seemed to hum in the air about him. Gemma knew that he would be a formidable opponent on the mat. His Italian ancestors must have come from Northern Italy since he was blond and blue eyed. His face showed strength and would age well, Gemma observed. It would have character rather than pretty boy good looks. Gemma took over the case and planned to oversee Alex's remaining therapy personally. She knew her student did not have the experience to prevent Alex from seriously re-injuring himself overdoing his exercises. Her other reason was far less professional. The ability to challenge pain, to overcome it, to take that next step, knowing that it would hurt, but recognizing the need for that pain and embracing it, fascinated Gemma. It was, she thought, the most basic and essential of human victories. To be part of that triumph, to be in control of that experience challenged and excited her. She had learned and accepted this quirk in her makeup when she first started to enjoy the truly difficult therapy case. It was this aspect of her personality that had come to full flower with the emergence of the powerful dominant, Mistress Gemma. This young man's tolerance for pain, his perseverance stirred her. She wanted to oversee his pain, direct his pain, control his pain. She wanted to control him. She wanted him, wanted to own him and she would have him. In every way, she and Alex were a study in contrasts. He was in his early twenties, fair, white, relatively short for a man and was confronted with pain. She was thirty one years old, black, exceedingly tall for a woman and was a provider of controlled pain on request in both of her callings. He seemed to challenge everything she was or saw herself to be and he did not even know it - yet. She would oversee his treatment and, before he realized it, she would be overseeing his young ass as her whip played its song of challenge just for him. She had plenty of time while she supervised his efforts to regain the use of his leg and she would use it all. But before they were done, he would belong to her, abjectly and completely. One thing about that first meeting, however, had surprised Gemma. When her student introduced her to Alex and told him that Gemma was to replace her as his therapist, his reaction had not been at all what she expected. Most Caucasian men she had met since arriving in this country, especially young men, nearly always did at least a double take when they first met her. She was a physically and personally imposing black woman whose very bearing dared men to test her. Few did when she pinned them eye to eye with 'the look'. Alex had merely shaken her hand firmly, but not painfully as some men did in reaction to her own challenge, and given her a weary smile. "Are you tough with your patients?" he had asked her after the pleasantries were dealt with. "The very toughest." She had assured him, looking him directly in the eyes. He met her gaze squarely and steadily, holding it with his own. She could see his mind working and assessing. "Good. Tomorrow, then? Same time?" She agreed and watched him leave, walking on crutches that he should not have been ready to use. This one was a challenge, indeed. He'd walk. He'd run. She guaranteed it to him and to herself. She wanted this one at the height of his powers when he gave himself over to her. He was going to submit his most essential self to her. A man that strong while that young would be the challenge and the triumph of a lifetime. The Master of Ceremonies was moving back to the podium where the announcing equipment had been installed. His movement past her had brought her back from the quiet darkness of her memories. Now Gemma would find out if she had made the correct decision in forcing that infernal plug up her ass. She rarely played anal games so she was almost virginally tight and the damned thing hurt. The Master signaled for attention from the crowd. Normally, the slave contestants would have come to attention or assumed their position of submission when a Master passed or was about to address them. In this case, the Mistress in Charge had told each of them to remain on their stools, with their asses fully packed, until specifically directed by the Master.