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Prints of Pleasure

by Moxiane

"No. It's not a joke, or a pun. It's a mistake."

- a very tired Crowing Hound

"It's disgusting, that's what it is. That place ought to be shut down, the owner hounded out of Nexus, and all of the filth he peddles burned in the street. I mean, just look at some of what he makes in there...!"

- Dela Red-Mare, concerned wife and mother, excellent advertiser

The subject of many jokes (some ribald and some not), Prints of Pleasure owes its name to, well, a screw-up by Savid Opelan, the owner of Signs and Portents, the premier sign-painter in Sentinel's Hill.

Originally to be named "Prince of Pleasure", it was going to be a male-only brothel, catering to a smaller and less rowdy crowd than some of the other establishments in Firewander. Crowing Hound, the souteneur of the would-be Prince of Pleasure, ordered the sign to be painted and installed while he was looking for "talent" for his stable. The cursing that was heard up and down the length of Sow's Trotter Lane when Crowing Hound returned was said to last well past midnight.

He eventually discovered that the barely-literate boy that had been sent to Opelan with the name of the sign had written it down incorrectly and the sign that was delivered was the one on the message - unfortunately for Crowing Hound, there was no possibility of a refund. The very next day, however, someone came knocking on the brightly-painted door asking if this was a place where pornography could be purchased. With that, a new business was born.

Now, four years later, Crowing Hound is at the head of a burgeoning empire of smut, selling wood-cut images of carnality and depravity (a major selling-point as far as Hound is concerned) for pennies per sheet. The models used in the pictures are also workers in the brothel, which occupies most of the top floor of the building - the actual printing is done next-door by The Nexus Scuttlebutt, River Lobster being glad of the extra money (which he feels is fair recompense for his sleepless nights).

For a premium price, it is possible for a customer of the brothel side of the business to get a woodcut with him- or herself as one of the subjects. Unfortunately, holding still long enough for the artist (usually one of several students of the Orinas Colours Academy struggling with the high fees of that school) to get a decent sketch on the block of wood is a major bar on the ambitions of many would-be customers.

Rumours

• It is possible, for certain customers, to get wood-cut pornography of far darker subject matter than the commonly-available material. Mutilation, bestiality and worse can be had - for the right price.
• One of the girls working at Prints of Pleasure is actually the daughter of a Guild merchant-prince who had her sent to Crowing Hound under a sorcerous compulsion for some horrendous infraction.

Secret

• Despite being constantly surrounded sexual imagery (and 15 highly-sexually-charged workers), Crowing Hound himself is impotent and has been for many years now, putting the lie to the popular image people have of his life of hedonism and endless sexual release (one promulgated by Hound himself) .

What does "souteneur" mean? I've never heard it and it's not in any dictionary I can find.
~ Shataina

According to the Phrontistery (an excellent list of 14K+ obscure words) it means "a prostitute's pimp or bully". I used it as the male counterpart to "madame" - because I couldn't find an actual word for that. - Moxiane
PS: thank FourWillowsWeeping for introducing me to that site. :)

Ooh. Thanks for the site rec. It looks awesome. And till now, the only "male madam" vague equivalent I've known is "procurer" -- and this is way more distinguished-sounding.  :)
~ Shataina