Reminiscence; cat-o'-nine-tails

Three days later, and I'm still in a lovely little glow from getting to speak with one of my loves, this happy little moment in time... bask in my happiness, for it will not last.

I'll give it about...oh, three days or so, and then mother dearest will do something, say something that will just throw my quiet little joy out the window. Figures eh? I mean, it's what she always does isn't it?

But! I've found something that heightens my little joy into something greater, jealousy. Oh no, not mine, others. It amazes me, at how many people who know me, are, or would be jealous. It's cute you know? I mean, one of those I told about my loves, I didn't think he really cared all that much about me, or anything, and yet he admitted to being jealous, after I prodded him about it. After all, he was fairly seething and green with it. It's so cute! Another friend of mine, he's got a girlfriend and even though he likes me, I know I'm second choice and always will be so it's no biggie, but even -he- was jealous!

Yeah, I know, I'm bragging. But how often does one girl have the loving adoration of one man, let alone two? And these two are neatly making all the other male friends of my aquaintance (even some of the female because they're so sweet) jealous! Even though they won't admit it, the pair of them are Players, you know, the sort of people that tend to break hearts? You ask what I have to base this on? They've admitted to me, on separate occasions, on saying things just for the reaction. After wading my way through their ego's (took a while, let me tell you) to actually the real person behind the bluff, it's...well, they're sweeter than candy. So, here you have a girl, finishing her final year in school with a player's heart in the palm of her hand, and not just one either, nooo...but two. One in each hand, cherished, held close, treasured all the more for the gift that they are.

Oh, and they wouldn't -dream- of trying to break my heart, it would have the unfortunate repercussion of shattering their own, since neither can bear to see me cry, or sad. *hums happily* I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Okay, that's enough of being mushy, let's get onto something more gruesome. Here are some common phrazes to dissect.

'Dont let the cat out of the bag'- from British ships, the cat-o'-nine-tails was kept in a burlap sack on board, someplace public as a threat and reminder of the consequences of misbehaviour.

'cat got your tongue?'- the pain of being flayed by a cat-o'-nine-tails was so great that when you drew in your breath to scream, you physically couldn't. Literally.

'Not enough room to swing a cat'- from the actual style of how you use the cat-o'-nine-tails. You had to swing it over your head swiftly in a circle to build up momentum before flaying the unfortunates back. Because the 'cat' was such a large whip, flaying habitually occured outside, indoors and you're liable to damage the walls.

'i'll scratch your back, if you'll scratch mine'- also applicable to the cat, there was the option of having a friend or relative flay the unfortunate, and them in turn be flayed. So it goes that 'i'll go easy on you, if you'll go easy on me'. How you can be gentle while flaying someone with that whip is beyond me, but there you have it.

Now, some of you have next to no idea about what a cat-o'-nine-tails is. It's obviously a whip, but it's a particularly nasty one. Nine 'tails', nine strips of leather about a metre and a half, to two metres long (4-6.5 feet or so) attached to a wood and leather handle. Not so bad you think? It's only 9 strips of leather landing on the flesh of my back right? Wrong. For what made the cat such a malicious and effective whip as that on the ends of those strips of leather, there were bits of iron/steel.

However, they did not have to be balls of metal, though they did more than enough damage, no they could be triangular barb-like structures that literally bit in and then tore the flesh from your back.

Lovely form of punishment, isn't it? Now, perhaps you'll understand why the phrases I put forward earlier are still so binding now, and why the 'cat' could, and did, literally steal your tongue.

Aren't I just a goldmine of useless, and downright -disturbing- information?