#the cat o'nine tails

[goryhorroor]

horror sub-genres: giallo

[rastronomicals]

9:50 PM EST January 9, 2023:

Ennio Morricone - “Paranoia Prima” From the Soundtrack album The Cat O'Nine Tails (1971)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Soundtrack music for the Dario Argento film

–

[ltwilliammowett]

A scrimshawed whalebone cat with nine hemp tails with elaborate sailor knot macrame attachment to shaft, 19th century

[giallifilm]

get you a man that can do both

[whump-in-the-closet]

Pirate Whump

the brig!! thrown in there and forgotten while saltwater seeps through and drenches whumpee constantly leaving them coughing and miserable

lack of sleep, forced to be on duty for hours at a time

smacking whumpee to the deck with a blow that leaves their eyes watering.

scrubbing the deck until their hands are scraped and bleeding. their arms and back ache so badly that when they stand up, they immediately double over.

flogging for minor mistakes. the humiliation of having their shirt ripped away and the stabbing, sharp pain of the cat o'nine tails on their skin is enough to break down the most stoic of the crew

collapsing on deck. in general. fainting. nausea. suddenly light headed and woozy from blood loss

falling to the deck on hands and knees and scraping them on the rough, worm-eaten wood

hostage situations on “friendly” terms. whumpee can wander around on deck and maybe they even joke around with some of the pirates. but the minute they try to escape, there’s a sweeping blade at their throat and someone roughly manhandling them to the captains quarters to be “dealt with”

being made an example of for misconduct is often extreme and cruel. there are no laws on the high seas

the damage left by the opposing side’s cannon fire? timber embedded in limbs, gaping wounds, and formerly brave sailors curling up in fetal positions to try and protect themselves

a captain whumper who calls their prisoner whumpee “darling” in the most derogatory way possible.

emergency first aid being applied hurriedly and with unskilled hands.bandages made from old shirts, amputations done unabashedly and crew mates being carried back fireman style to their ship.

“bite down on this” and “don’t look” as they cut away a damaged limb, multiple crew members holding whumpee down

mer whumpees— caught and put on a leash so they’re dragged along the side of the boat. sometimes they pull whumpee up and “have a bit of fun” as whumpee thrashes and gasps for air.

captain whumpee found stranded on an island by an opposing captain. they’re “taken care of” by being humiliated and beaten, laughed at, and forced to be the cabin boy

[mottlemoth]

Re: the back scars

So I passed Izzy's scars by my resident consulting historian (*cough* my wife)

She suggests that the downward raking pattern, all in the same general direction, is strongly indicative of a cat o'nine tails - the nine-stranded whip used to impose discipline aboard British navy vessels of the time

[sgiandubh]

End of Anon mystery

Rehashing that Inquisitive Anon who so wanted to know, to know it ALL, to know it RIGHT NOW:

I answered. I wish I didn't. I wish I would have been intelligent for once and thrown it in the bin. But I thought some answer was better than no answer at all, so answer I did and I asked around. Deepest thanks go to: @amongtheblackpinesbranches, @cb4tb, @wordlady60, @ready4newyear, @siobhan64blog, @bat-cat-reader (who reblogged it for visibility and that was sweet & considerate and Bat, you are one of my heroes here) and also to friends reaching out in DMs (you know who you are, what would I do without those chats? LOL). They all took time to look, as I did (after all, I am temperamental, IRL) and came back confused and determined to put this thing to rest.

I will never be able to retrace my walk of maybe a couple of months ago, which took me to a detailed account of Starfury's Highlanders 2 event in Blackpool (25-27 August 2017 - so after IFH and I remembered correctly). That was a link tucked away in the comments of a dormant blog: whip me with the cat o'nine tails, I do not remember which one and I do not keep tabs.

But I did find these that confirm the kerfuffle over it, at the time it happened: all three of them (if three sources are enough for a newspaper, they should be enough for you too, Anon) are now people who moved on from this fandom, never were shippers or jumped boat.

On Yellowfeather's blog (https://yellowfeather84.tumblr.com/post/164757632632/your-follower-pepimint-again-said-on-the-comments):

On Artlander's blog (https://www.tumblr.com/lulu-tan79/164770897625/to-name-slip-anon-after-read-that-post-and-the):

And, pour la bonne bouche, this comment from A Hundred and a Thousand More (https://www.tumblr.com/ahundred-andathousandmore/164830574844/hi-jess-this-is-my-first-time-messaging-you-not), that perhaps sheds a new light on Inquisitive's Anon agenda:

So here is my definitive answer to you, Inquisitive Anon. It is two-folded, as expected:

If you came in peace, welcome! There are, to my meagre knowledge at least, NO videos of that moment and scarcely any pictures. Not all people who were in that room picked that up, thought it important to mention or are still around, today. And few links and pictures of this tiny shippery blip survived The Merry Cretaceous, that blessed time of receipts galore, when Jess' joy was enough to ignite a steam locomotive by itself. It is the main and bitter loss for us, people who are very, very late to this party.

However, if you did not come in peace, let me tell you this: go straight to that born-again Taliban Chihuahua who thought the opposite in 2017 (see above) and tell her I am such an old hand on the return, I still fumble with timelines like an elephant in a china shop. Tell her Palpatine sent you. She knows what I mean. FFS.

[pavaillard]

TW: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, DARK THEMES

Scars by anatomy:

HEAD

Broken nose several times in prison brawls as well as close-quarters combat. Wolfe can be accounted for at least two separate instances of shattering her nose.

A deep eyebrow laceration that required stitches when her target obtained intel that she was coming. Nearly lost her eye--managed to shove the knife a few inches upwards instead.

Failed attempt to slice her carotid.

TORSO

Various gunshot scars from a wide variety of missions. One particular cluster on her shoulder blade forced her into recovery for close to a year.

Stab wound near her collarbone from stealing food out of a local gang's shipment in Montreal. Collarbone was also broken in this instance.

A fellow trainee romantically involved with Celene turned rogue on a paired mission and stabbed her in the back between her spine and shoulder blade. Celene tortured her with hedge trimmers and killed her by using a lawn mower.

In prison, her cellmate stabbed her with a fashioned blade. Celene blinded her by digging her thumbs into her eye sockets and was in the process of choking her out when the guards intervened.

Both burns were inflicted on her by the Right Hand. Celene was branded with a common iron horse brand in retaliation for an assassination in which she failed to verify the target was dead (he was). Celene was kept for days in an isolated cell with no light, food, or water, and was woken up with beating and branding.

Hysterectomy to avoid pregnancy, accidental or otherwise. Done during initial training after being subject to multiple rapes and sexual assaults.

Ribs broken by a well-aimed kick with a steel-toed boot. Also perforated her lung.

Light scars left by a cat o'nine tails.

LEFT ARM

Various gunshot wounds.

Fractured the humorous and ulna from a bad landing. Had to be plated and screwed.

Knuckles broken from close combat.

Misc cuts and scrapes too numerous to document.

Broken and dislocated thumb from getting her hand slammed in between a door and the frame followed by being stomped on.

RIGHT ARM

Fractured the head of the humorous and ulna when elbowing an assailant in the skull.

Various gunshot wounds.

LEGS

Deep inner thigh scars from a sexual assault in prison. Done with a smuggled screw from the woodshop.

Failed attempt by an assailant to slice the femoral artery, but resulted in heavy bleeding nonetheless.

Heavily scarred skin from frostbite due to training deemed 'exposure' in sub-arctic conditions.

Failed attempt to cut ligature behind her knees.

Failed attempt to cut the achilles tendon.

Extreme scarring on knees from various falls, fights, and other.

All toes broken when Celene narrowly avoided getting completely run over by a target in a truck. She was lucky it wasn't more of her feet, really.

WIP.

[werewolfetone]

The Drennan letters: well that's nice that the entire city of newry has been spontaneously burnt to the ground by rioters I guess but let's get back to what's really important: armchair diagnosing your husband's friends

The McCracken letters: harry if you haven't invented the tumble dryer in your prison cell yet I'm coming down there to whip you with a cat o'nine tails I really mean it this time

The Castlereagh letters: this time I'm really going to do it

[goryhorroor]

horror • giallo horror

a giallo film is a stylish and violent crime thriller hailing from italy. the gore, creepy visuals, and similarities to slashers often associated with the giallo genre lend strong connective tissue to the horror genre.

[lupusmatri]

I should be getting strapped down to a bed and pelted with a cat o'nine tails all over my ribs. For mental health.

[ltwilliammowett]

Cat o'nine tails, England, 19th century

One of the most feared punishments at sea. This cat did not come to cuddle but to scar the back of the guilty sailor. Traditionally, the offender had to make the cat himself.

Photo by me- IMM Hamburg

[aziraphale]

crowley: [walking past 10 sex shops on the way to aziraphale's bookshop in soho] humans really can be sick bastards sometimes, look at them sexualizing torture like this. that's literally a cat o'nine tails! manacles! just the thought of using that on someone you love - demons could never imagine doing anything so terrible

aziraphale: sigh. they just don't paint nude men all over the walls of cathedrals the way they used to anymore

[eldrai]

I'm imagining in OFMD a scene with Alma on the Revenge. I don't know how, it doesn't matter much, but she's there maybe because she wants to learn how to be a pirate too and she stowed away so whoops there's a child now–

Said child gains an entire crew protecting her and they're naturally ecstatic about meeting her because come on, Stede is unique and they are admittedly curious about how his kids turned out.

And eventually Izzy hears them talking about Alma. Maybe they even barge in on him to come tell him "quick, come and meet the Captain's daughter!"

So Izzy is thinking great, finally some decent pirating happening and he didn't think Bonnet had him in it to whip someone - come to think of it, he's not sure who it is on the receiving end of the punishment -

Only to get to the deck and let out the most frustrated strangled growl because this is the Revenge. Where the Captain's daughter means, quite literally, the Captain's daughter. Not, as most of the crew are familiar with, as a euphemism for the cat o'nine tails. That'd be too rational for this bloody ship.

He'd rather take the flogging, honestly.

(He's lying. He might hate the majority of the crew but a child at least has an excuse for not knowing anything about piracy - she's a child.)

[littleperilstories]

Happy STS!

What special knowledge or research was required to write your story? (If you have more than one, pick whichever you would like to talk about!)

Happy STS! Thanks for the ask. :)

LOLLLL you picked the perfect question for me!

Historical clothing stuff! I'm no expert but knowing a little bit about it sure helped. :D

[some] historical weapons stuff! Again, I am NOT an expert (very very very far from it) but. It helped.

random google searches I've done for TPOT-related reasons

when were public libraries invented

how were mattresses made in the 1800s

when did railroads become very common

what is the sequence of events of a fever

how long to recover from a flogging

how many lashes in a flogging

what were 1800s prison conditions like

alternative punishments to flogging (that's how we ended up with the first part of the whipping chapter)

length of time for wound infection symptoms to show up

when were cigars invented

when were matches invented

what came before flintlocks

what came after flintlocks

how to treat a musket wound

literally everything about bows and arrows bc I know nothing

we all remember the cat o'nine tails research. I'm sure we'll never need that info again. for an AU. or something.

plus random words I wasn't sure would have been in circulation

I'm sure there's so many more but that's all I can think of, haha

[gepetordi1]

Cat o'nine tails, England, 19th centuryOne of the most feared punishments at sea. This cat did not come to cuddle but to scar the back of the guilty sailor. Traditionally, the offender had to make the cat himself.