Sir, Butler and Boy ~ Rules and Regulations ~ Page 11
This page is about how ‘no limits’ and ‘whatever pleases you’ sounds very submissive but is in fact very dangerous for all people involved.
John is supposed to be unreadable in the final panel, hence the drama lighting. Is he angry and about to slam the scene down or resigned and about to let James do exactly as he wishes? Find out Wednesday!
That subspace y’all. Seriously, this is the point where you need to know the limits of your sub or things can get messy. And James doesn’t. Nor does he understand the mental state that Arthur is under…
I had to teach my girl to word still while under that high… and she does because she knows it would otherwise displease me, not for her own well-being. Only some subs get like this (I know I don’t when I’m on the bottom) but… fuck…
John doesn’t look unreadable. He looks like he’s about to break the ruler and then homer-strangle James.
the lack of planning and communication in this whole scene is stressing me out, but I think that’s the point.
It’s stressing me too. But I think, for all of John and Jefferson’s experience, they’re primarily self-taught and don’t know how to teach except through experience. Plus there’s the normal power structure of their regular lives in play too (he may be young but he’s their employer and they aren’t hired to educate him, etc.)
At least, that’s the read I get from everything.
I would love to see their actual power imbalance addressed in their relationship- this scene is all the more horrifying when you realize that he is their boss and has the power to have them unemployed or thrown in jail.
In the middle left-hand panel, is there a word left out of the text? ” use you like **you** have me?” ?– maybe?
Fun fact: Doms use safewords, too. This seems like an exceptionally good time for one.
Oh, no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. James, no.
Man, I do normally love this triad but at this point I think… well, James did say “show me how.” I guess it didn’t occur him or John that there’s more to it than physical limits.
I’m still not sure that gives James an out for how cruel he’s being to either of his partners right now. I hope their relationship survives this.
I can’t relate to that hope, but I never liked James or the dynamics of this triad outside of scenes that I personally found hot. I always harbored an unrealistic dream that Arthur and John would dump him, and he would just have to treat people better in the future.
Bless you so much Tab for making this comic with all its (ahem) kinks in actual practice vs ideas of one member.
Ahhh it’s stressful but I’m just hoping SOMEONE speaks up for Jefferson. Someone needs to safeword and intervene and just sit down and get things figured out.
Buuut I will definitely use this as an example to my partners (who sadly suffer the same ‘do whatever pleases you Mistress’ mentality). I have to tell them that they need to state limits, even if it seems absurd to even say so. I tend to poke holes in the “do whatever you want with me” by saying “So could I cut off all your hair?” as an example from Sexplanations Dr. Lindsey Doe was asked from a professional Dom at a sex dungeon.
BDSM is all about trust in your partners and trusting that you have proper information and training and your partner too to know what you’re going into. Trusting the Dom not to go too far; trusting the sub to speak up or safeword or give a gesture when they need to take a break or get out of the situation.
Jefferson is in too deep of a sub space to advocate for himself. James is on a power trip and his inexperience is really showing here, and his lack of knowledge of his partners and of the acts.
John kinda needs to be like “Ok, first, tea and after care. We gotta get Arthur and James back to normal states, and then BDSM lesson and a group meeting to go over the master-plan of limits and interests” (like a yes, no, maybe list)
I just…I feel so empathetic for them and I hope they can learn and grow from this, because in some cases, abuse of power gets someone removed/on timeout/reprimanded. I also just want to see Jefferson taken care of, like a gentle massage or bath over his new wounds.
This really is all the difference in active, enthusiastic consent and passive consent. Yes means yes and pushing limits really need to be eased into. Maybe it’s my caring domme/submissive empathy pouring through. I’ll be so happy to see James learn and grow from this to become a more tactful dominant.
Like the scene from John stopping Arthur from making a mistake with taking too many lashings, and instead John does the hold-the-pose thing. That is so hot and cute and it makes me happy, and it shows John’s knowledge (or empathy?) to switch up so Jefferson still gets to be submissive and a good butler, and he’s safe.
I’m still of the opinion that James is being his usually bratty-sub persona and deliberately poking John to see how far he can go before being punished. He is enjoying this yes, and he probably would like to fuck Jeffereson, but I think he still wants to get his dom angry.
This is really gross. I thought this page would be where it got better, not worse, and I really hope that James has actual consequences.
Honestly I can’t imagine a scenario where this “scene” continues and I continue following this triad. James needs to be thrown the hell out of that room.
Now, to be fair:
I’d wager it’s very likely that Jefferson has *never* told James about his issues with being fucked. Which means James is completely in the dark here as far as he’s concerned – after all, John made a grand to-do about how Jefferson staying in place implies his consent to everything, and he hasn’t moved yet. Submitting and bottoming seem rather intertwined for him (unless I’ve forgotten a chapter, I don’t believe he’s ever seen John bottom so all of his experience says Dom’s top, subs bottom), so he’s likely functioning on the assumption that they do actually go hand-in-hand for everyone. So as far as he can see, this is just a jealousy game with John.
And John isn’t exactly helping the situation here. He’s not explaining what is wrong with James’s suggestion, and he needs to step up to do that. Jefferson clearly isn’t in a place to do so right this second, whether because he’s in subspace or because he’s in the same mindset he’d been in before he and John figured things out together. Possibly even some mix of the two. Which means John has to be the one to look out for him, and he needs to do it in a way that James understands what the real problem here is.
Telling him “it’s only fair” to let him have a turn at topping was not a good move on his part, in all honesty. It can very easily be taken wrong, especially by someone who’s already insecure about the relationship they all have together. It can very easily be taken as a preference or a measure of worth between Jefferson and James within the dynamic. “Jefferson matters more to him which is why he doesn’t like to share him but he can share ME” etc.
Every one of them needs to go work on their communication skills. John and Jefferson are implied to have it rather figured out when it’s just the two of them, but they are absolute shit at it when James comes into the picture. And James is horrible at it in general. But he’s also very green with this.
None of this makes the behavior *okay*, by any means. But it’s an important perspective we have to take into account. The scene clearly needs to stop, and some very serious talking needs to happen, but James isn’t the only one at fault right now. Throwing him out of the room won’t fix anything.
there are many benefits to reading a comic *checks notes* seven years after it was published