The Vassal Academy Ch. 28

Geneva watched him go, she had also noticed the tensing of Kristy, and smiled at her, hoping to get her to relax. OK, time to calm her down, and find out what happened to set her off.

Andre was in giving a report, more fully than normal. "I heard the call while I was in the shower. I thought of going, but since I caused this."

Devon waved it away. "She got panicky in the end? Before that, no sign of any problem?"

"Yeah. Hell, I thought she was having a great time, right until the end, when she suddenly got scared." Andre said. "I backed off, and talked to her softly, just like we're supposed to, to calm her." He shrugged. "I could see it wasn't working. I suggested she shower up here, and then I found Geneva. You weren't in your office."

Devon nodded. "Geneva's talking to her now, I hope she's making more progress than I am."

"Sorry Boss, looks like I screwed up." Andre said sadly.

"I don't know what you did wrong. It sounds like you did pretty good. Something triggered this, probably something from her past. Something we don't know about, and like a landmine you don't know is there, it's a surprise. You handled it right though, giving her space, and then sending support." Devon said thoughtfully.

Geneva sat on the bed and held Kristy's hand. "Want to talk about it?"

"I'm falling in love with them too. I can't fall in love, not again." Kristy said with a trembling voice. "Not again."

Geneva gave her hand a squeeze. "Tell me about it."

Kristy wiped her eyes with toilet paper; slaves don't get Kleenex so Geneva didn't have any in the room. Then she emptied the bag. She just turned it upside down and dumped it out. "I got started in porno when I was seventeen. My Dad got me a fake ID. After a couple years, I realized how sick it was, what I was doing. I mean, I'm fucking people so my Father gets paid. How sick is that? So I left in the middle of the night. I just ran. I knew he was using me. I got to California, and I met Jason. He was cool, you know, the bad boy type?"

Geneva nodded her understanding. Kristy continued. "He and I talked, and he found out about me being in porn. He was supportive and understanding." Kristy snorted laughter. "I fell in love with him, and he got me doing porn again. This time, he kept the money. The last movie, the bondage one, was the first I did for me to get the money for fucking." Kristy wiped her eyes again. "Everyone I've ever loved has used me, everyone Geneva. I can't love again."

Geneva was stuck. She had no instructions. Nothing in her experience covered this. She bit her lip, and then decided to go with her instincts. If they were wrong, and Master was unhappy, she would lose the table, but she had to do something here. Raising her wrist, she started to push the talk button and closed her eyes in real pain. The numbers were screwed up. The shower had fried it after all, damn. She looked at Kristy and made a quick decision. "I need to get something, my watch is fried, and I need to arrange a couple trays for lunch, we're eating up here. Will you be OK for ten minutes?"

Kristy nodded and lay back, her head resting on the wall by the bed. She seemed not to notice. Geneva ran down the hall, her bare feet slapping on the tiles as she rushed to get everything. First to Admin, she saw Master Devon in his office, and ducked in reporting quickly. Then she told him her plan and he blinked at her in surprise.

"Geneva, I don't think so." Devon said softly obviously considering. "I'll be up in a moment."

"Master, she's afraid." Geneva protested.

"I understand that." Devon said thinking quickly. "I think I have a better plan for her." He issued fast instructions and then sent Geneva on her way.

"Yes Master." Geneva said confused. She went and got another watch from the cabinet and noticed that there were only two left. She had to quit breaking them. Leaving the old watch, she hustled back upstairs.

Arriving back in her room, Geneva was breathing hard as she came to a stop. "Wow, that's a long run."

Kristy was sitting on the bed. "You OK?"

"Yeah." Geneva panted. "Was rushing to get things moving."

She sat on the chair and started to explain to Kristy how the Dominant and Submissive life worked, for real.

Devon walked to the class where the Dominants were being taught to stride and command the area by Rebecca. He gestured and signaled to Elaine, and she came to him. He whispered in her ear asking her to follow him, and trust him. She nodded.

In the central area, he slowed his walk and started to explain in low tones as they climbed the stairs. He got to the top and stopped in the hallway, before the turn into the staff wing proper. "She's terrified of falling in love, apparently everyone she's ever loved has betrayed her."

Elaine allowed real pain to flash across her face as she imagined the agony that Kristy was going through. "Damn, that's awful."

"She's submissive, but to truly trust your Dom, you have to love your Dom, and it will destroy her in time." Devon continued.

"Yeah." Elaine agreed. "So how are you going to help her? Are you going to take her in and train her?"

"She's not that submissive. She's at the point of discovery. She's not advanced enough to really even begin training. That will come later, for now, the discovery is terrifying. She needs time to explore her own desires, and her own mind." Devon said significantly.

"You want me to help, in LA?" Elaine asked surprised.

Devon nodded. "You're a Dominant, not like us, but one instinctively. You've done this for years, and you know how to get someone started." Devon took her elbow and began walking slowly towards the staff wing turn. "I could do it, but it's more gentle than this facility is intended for. It takes time, time that would be better spent with her in a comfortable surrounding, where she can explore on her own with someone she trusts."

Elaine reluctantly agreed with the wisdom. "This is rather advanced for someone who is only discovering that they are submissive."

Devon picked up the Dominant stride and allowed his footfalls to be heard as he headed down the hallway. He approached Geneva's room and stopped in the doorway. "Geneva, Kristy, how are you doing?"

Kristy was still in the bed, under the blankets, and looking miserable as she sat listening to Geneva tell her about the real world of Domination. "I'm OK.

Devon frowned; there was only one chair in the room. "One moment." He ducked into Diane's room and pulled her chair out to the hallway. Then into Crystal's room and pulled her chair to the hallway. Taking both of them he entered Geneva's room and placed them. "I wanted us all to be comfortable while we talked."

Elaine sat down and Devon began. "Kristy, you're at an amazing point in your life. One that every submissive knows. The point of discovery." He sat in the last chair, and made sure to stay far enough back to keep from causing Kristy to feel trapped or threatened.

"Geneva said I was a slave at heart." Kristy said softly. "What will people think of me?"

"It doesn't matter." Elaine began. "Your Dominant will explain it to you." She glanced at Devon. "I'll explain it to you."

Geneva understood then. Master's plan was to let Kristy discover on her own, with some guidance from the only other player here from LA. To send Kristy home, until she was advanced enough to decide if this kind of training was for her. Master was certainly brilliant. Kristy would not take to the training yet. She was stressed out in this kid glove training. She was too much a novice yet.

"So you're supposed to be my Dom?" Kristy asked.

"I'm going to be your first Dom. You will probably choose another before long, when you've learned more. I'm going to be your guide." Elaine said softly. "I'm going to help you discover your own desires, and then we'll find the right Dom for you together, one who will meet your needs, and your desires."

"What does that mean?" Kristy asked with a growing sense of exasperation.

"You may not be a lesbian, or bi sexual. You might be, but you might not." Elaine said. "We need to discover where your true desire lies. If it is with me, so be it. If not, then I will help you find one who will take you into slavery proper."

"Let me guess, that would be here right?" Kristy said with a bit more acid than she'd intended.

Devon shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. That is a long way down a difficult road." He smiled genially. "Kristy, you have no idea what lies ahead of you, which is why I am not going to even consider taking you for training. The students who train here, for real, have already made the journey you're starting. They know they're submissive, and they know what makes them happy. You don't yet. It takes time, and it takes a comfortable area to make that journey of self discovery."

Kristy admitted that this made sense. "OK, so I'm submissive, but we don't know how submissive, and Elaine is going to help me figure it out."

Devon nodded. He was about to speak when Elaine beat him to the punch. "I'll forgive that this time. However, next time you forget to call me Mistress, I'll spank that ass of yours Kristy."

Kristy opened her mouth and then closed it. She nodded and bit her lip. "Sorry Mistress."

"Better." Elaine said. "Discipline is part of your life now. You obey your Mistress, because failure to do so will result in punishment."

Devon remained silent, Elaine was doing the work now. She continued. "Now, we have some study to do to prepare for this movie. I understand that your previous lovers have all taken advantage of you." Elaine said this as dismissively as possible. "This is your movie, and your paycheck. You are to give none to anyone who didn't earn it, and I certainly haven't."

"My money." Kristy said seriously. "I'm working for it, it's mine."

Elaine nodded. "It is." She shifted and crossed one leg over the other. "For the time being, we'll just stay close to each other, once this week, and the movie is done, we'll get together in LA, and we'll spend some time talking. I'll introduce you to submission, and you'll tell me your life's story, and your deepest darkest secrets."

Kristy bit her lip and looked scared again. Elaine smiled. "Any Dominant that they put you in touch with, me for example, would not betray your trust. Any Dominant I introduce you to will have the same values."

Kristy nodded her head. "Yes Mistress." She glanced at Geneva and said. "It's just hard to trust anyone."

"I understand, which is why we are going to go slow, and take our time." Elaine said casually. "Perhaps one day, we'll come back here. They have so much to teach."

Devon glanced at Geneva and gave a small sign. She stood and he moved at the same time. They left Elaine and Kristy to get acquainted before lunch. In the hallway Devon issued instructions to Geneva. "Stay close to her, she may yet have another episode. Let Elaine do most of this, she's done it before, and will do a fine job."

"Yes Master." Geneva said softly. "Master, I didn't understand your plan earlier, and I'm sorry, I wondered if you understood the situation properly." She hung her head. "I doubted you."

"You questioned my wisdom in a medical situation, and that is your job." Devon said. "You didn't disobey, you were protecting your patient." He turned and smiled thinly at her. "If you had disobeyed me, or openly defied me in a non medical situation, I would have hung you from the rafters by your thumbs before flogging the skin off of you."

Geneva swallowed hard. She had no doubt in her mind that he would do just that. "Yes Master." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry to have questioned you earlier."

"Again, in Medical situations, I want you, and your standing orders are, to always side with your patient, and care for them with your best effort." Devon glanced at his watch. "Go to the Kitchen, and get two trays up here for them. I want them to have some time to get started."

"Yes Master." Geneva said and then moved off down the hall. Devon went downstairs himself, and deflected comments by saying he had a special training session for Elaine.

He signaled Jeannette to come to him, and he whispered a brief update and instructions in her ear.

Elaine and Kristy were talking. They were getting acquainted, and they were getting comfortable with each other. Kristy finally asked why she had such a powerful reaction to the Trainers here, why she feels like she loves them already.

"That's how we knew you were submissive." Elaine answered simply. "We could see the response, and see that you were a sub."

"But why?" Kristy asked. "What about them makes me react that way?"

Elaine smiled at the younger woman. "Because you are a submissive. You instinctively trust the dominating aura they give off. You instinctively want to submit to them." She shrugged at the younger woman. "That's why you've been abused. Your boyfriend, he was abusive, but your inexperience mistook that for the dominating nature that your soul desired."

Kristy bit her lip. "So I'm going to be attracted to people who hurt me?"

Elaine shook her head. "In time, you'll learn to differentiate between Dominants, and Abusers."

Michael had noticed that there were two actors missing, and also he'd noticed the flurry of whispered conversations between the Academy Staff. He sided up to Devon and asked. "OK, what's going on?"

Devon appeared confused. "I don't know, we're going to lunch in a few minutes, what do you mean?"

"OK, I'll spell it out. Kristy is not here, despite the fact that I've seen all your trainers. And I've seen all the other slaves." Michael turned and glanced around the central area. "I've also noticed that you pulled Elaine out of the class, and she's missing too."

Devon turned so his back was to the crowd. "Michael, if I may suggest something?"

"Yes?" Michael asked with a sense of superiority. He'd seen through them.

"Don't ask me that question, trust me to look out for your, and their best interests, and things will work out. Demand an answer, and I can guarantee we won't like the result." Devon said in a tone of voice that brooked no debate or mistake.

Michael paled a bit. He'd been told to fuck himself, not in those words, but for all intents and purposes. "What?"

"What I am doing, is in your best interest, Elaine's, and Kristy's. It is best, that you don't ask me any more. I won't answer, and your eventual demands will result in a rather ugly scene that would affect me not at all."

"Now see here, we've got a deal going here." Michael said in a slightly louder voice.

Devon turned to face him directly. "If you wish, we can stop it. The products can be sold by your company, but we have no contract that guarantees this training. This is at our sufferance." Devon placed a thin dangerous smile on his face. "Trust me to do what I said I would, and you'll be satisfied with the result."

"If whatever you're doing backfires, I'll make sure you get the blame." Michael said in impotent threat. He knew it was impotent, but he didn't like being slapped down like that.

Devon looked him right in the eye. "I always get the blame for my mistakes. No one else can accept my responsibility."

Ann walked up having sensed the tension between the two. "Devon, we're about ready for lunch now, will you two be joining us?"

Michael nodded. "OK, I'm going to trust you, for now."

Devon nodded. "Certainly my friend, if this wasn't important, I would not react this way."

At lunch, the conversation followed the training, and what improvement the actors had shown. Ann summarized. "Ok, we've got the wannabe submissive's at least able to stand and pretend to be submissive."

Rebecca chuckled. "We've got the Dominants able to stand, and stop looking around for approval."

Tony shook his head. "You people are really something." He stopped and looked down the table towards Devon. "I mean, you spot the smallest thing, and at first, I'm like, what's the big deal, let the guy stand how he wants." Shrugging he finished. "When you were done with Will, he was somehow more commanding."

Devon nodded. "It's presence, confidence, and we can't teach them to exude what they don't have, but we can show them how to fake it convincingly."

Frank chuckled. "Fake it convincingly." He glanced at Tony. "Ever heard of a movie being described better?"

The afternoon's training went on after lunch, and before Dinner, Michael who had been mostly silent all afternoon, stewing about how Devon had slammed the door on him was getting more angry, instead of calmer. Devon saw this, and in an effort to defuse the situation, managed to avoid being wherever Michael was.

Devon knew this would fail, and didn't see a way around a scene with Michael. Michael in the mean time had used his cell phone to call and complain to Christina, Devon was doing something with the Actors, something private and secret, and wasn't telling them about it. Worse, he was threatening to shut down the training if Michael objected.

Christina almost dialed Ann's number, but then called Dominique, who had no idea what was going on, but promised to look into it. Personally.

She arrived at the Academy, in the rain, in a taxi, in a mood that was as foul as the weather. She got to admin and found Devon out of the office, and no one manning the phones. Walking to one of the desks, she picked up a hand radio that sat in a charger and pressed the talk button. "Devon, come to administration please."

Michael heard that and smiled contentedly. He'd gotten Devon's boss involved, and now there would be some answers.

Kristy and Elaine were chatting like old friends in the meantime, and were really starting to get along.

Devon walked into admin, and found Dominique behind his desk. He didn't mind, she was his superior. "Good afternoon Dominique, I hope you didn't drive in this downpour."

"Save it Devon." Dominique said coolly. "Christina called me from LA wanting to know what the hell is going on. You're threatening Michael, the entire film?"

Devon sat in one of the guest chairs. "I should have expected this."

"Yes you should have, now what the hell is going on."

Devon was about to speak. When Michael came into the office and after closing the door behind him, sat down in the other guest chair before the desk. "That's all I want to know as well Devon."

Devon smiled thinly. "OK." He turned to Dominique and got no sign of her disapproval in Michael's behavior. "Kristy is a submissive, with a bad history. Everyone she's been attracted to, or loved, has abused her. Starting with her own father. She had a class with Andre earlier, and experienced a panic episode related to the establishment of the Dominant Submissive relationship. Geneva calmed her down, to some extent, and after discussing the matter found me and explained the situation." Devon still had not looked at Michael since beginning the report. "I found Elaine, who has shown everyone here that she is a Dominant, untrained by our standards, but absolutely familiar with the lifestyle."

"So you're going to train Kristy here?" Dominique asked.

Devon shook his head. "No. She's still in the discovery phase. It will take months, perhaps years for her to become self-aware enough to even consider our type of training. Elaine is going to return to LA with her, assuming that everyone here doesn't humiliate her so badly that she leaves and refuses to do the movie, an event I assumed would happen about seven seconds after the jackass here found out."

"Now wait a minute." Michael objected

Utterly ignoring the outburst from Michael. "So you've got them talking now?" Dominique asked to get the matter back on the subject.

"Yes, upstairs in the staff wing, where they won't be disturbed. Geneva took two trays up, and returned with them after lunch. She said it looks like they're getting along fairly well." Devon held his hands up. "You know how delicate discovery can be, and how vulnerable that time period is. If everyone, or anyone here knew about it, they would blab because rumor mongering is the way they look important in Hollywood."