Leo Equum Domitor

Leo Equum Domitor by Iron Eater first appeared in issue Issue 92 in 2021.

Creator's Notes

FIRST THINGS FIRST: This story contains extreme content, most of which is sexually charged, which may not be enjoyable for all readers. The framed verse in the first illustration following the title card is meant as a direct warning of said (in addition to being a secondary story element), but in the event it’s not clear enough: the first chapter and its accompanying illustration deal directly with violence, gore, and bloodplay, while the last chapter and ITS accompanying illustration are built around body horror. Both are implied to be positive things for their participants. There are also arguments involving whether or not people with specific physical conditions should be treated as less than human and assorted themes of historical-flavored classism. I write horror-romance with a brick on the gas pedal. If these don’t sound like elements you’re comfortable engaging with, I hope you enjoy the rest of the issue!

Moving on, this is the fourth story in the Ward & Wainwright series, the previous three being (in both publication and chronological order) Cruorem Veritas, In Ossa Venenum, and Mare Testimonii, all of which are available in previous issues of S2B2. Familiarity with previous stories is not required to understand this story! The title this time around translates to “The Lion Tamer” and has nothing to do with horses. I know, I was surprised, too.

This was the first time I wrote anything longer than a few paragraphs from Mr. Ward’s POV, and it was truly strange referring to him by his given name all the time. As Mr. Ward is also intentionally a distant, somewhat unknowable figure, I went out of my way to never actually share details that couldn’t be gleaned by an outside observer, which meant not only no internal monologue but no description of tastes, tactile sensations, or even emotional states. If it feels like he was gated off from the reader this was absolutely intentional. If nothing else it was a good way to practice more subtle forms of characterization; one will note his peers were referred to in the text by surname alone, while Hugh always had that “Mr.” of his. We can also once more note when Mr. Ward will refer to Hugh as “the professor” (or “Professor Wainwright”) and when he’ll use “Mr. Wainwright”, in context potentially more obvious than in Mare Testimonii.

This was originally going to be a five-chapter story, with Mr. Ward going off on the other handlers as early as the second chapter and floating the concept of Hugh accompanying him immediately afterwards. For pacing reasons I added two more; establishing a solid status quo is important for original settings, especially weird ones that don’t feel like explaining things very much, and I also wanted to get a chance to write Hugh happily playing the role of sugar daddy for his absolute favorite person in the world. The botanical gardens were chosen as homage to some brainstorming sessions I ran through AI Dungeon several months back. As for Hugh getting horny for not-Bernini statuary, that fell into place once I needed for them to walk around more on their little date, and once I realized I wanted the chance to describe Mr. Ward’s slightly dumpy build via a callback to said statues I knew I’d made the right decision. Finding a natural way for two very, very formal characters to talk about sexually formative experiences was an opportunity I simply couldn’t pass up.

I fully admit to shaping the story I wanted to write to fit into a theme-shaped hole rather than organically matching the issue concept, with the handlers’ debates feeling appropriate for having people fight like the eponymous creatures. Blurring the line as to how one should properly treat an unstable shapeshifting murder machine, to say nothing of just how human Hugh actually is (extraordinarily) and whether it’s appropriate for Mr. Ward to treat him as he does (probably not!), fell into place later. This entire series is shaped the way it is because I needed an ominous butler character to honor the concept of a past October issue so “ehhh, I’m sure it’ll be a better fit the more I work on it” is something of a running theme. The couple that boldly engages in ethics violations together stays together…?

Will these two be showing up again? Oh, absolutely, barring disaster; they’ve got a metaplot in place and it’s only going to get worse. Watch this space in 2022.