Coyote Too

D/s culture replete with ways to punish a submissive, but what happens when the Master goes astray and hurts the submissive? Who punishes him?

The answer is quite simple. The Master punishes himself.

Whether the relationship is for a single scene or a life time. Whether it takes place in a club, a bedroom, or across the internet. Whether it's for show, for play, or fundamental Need. No matter what the time, the setting, or the reason; the Master took on a responsibility to care for the submissive. Her well-being becomes not just his responsibility, it becomes his well-being. Just as her pleasure becomes his pleasure, so her pain becomes his pain. You cannot have one without the other. So long as the relationship exists, the two are bound, not just together, but within each other. Pleasure and pain. Trust and responsibility. Master and submissive. One being.

When the Master screws up, both feel the pain. The submissive understands pain. So long as Trust remains, she has an outlet; she can seek solace in the care of her Master. She can hide behind the security of protocols and structure. The Master has no similar option. He cannot run away; she needs his presence. He can not ask for comfort; she needs his strength. His pain is raw and unprotected, and the submissive's continued trust in him only magnifies it, because he knows he has violated that trust; he knows he is undeserving of Trust.

Despite the pain. Despite the self-doubt. He must carry both pain and guilt together; they are one. That is the responsibility he took on when he entered into the relationship. If the relationship is to continue he must heal their shared pain the only way possible; by proving to himself, and to her, that Trust is justified; that he still deserves to be her Master.

Her pain. His punishment.