The Iron Man [Serial]

House of Wolves

The building seemed better preserved than some, having an overhanging second story, but did not seem otherwise remarkable from without. Alpha soon explained that the Roman brick structure was not so much better preserved as better restored. "Since the end of the war," he said, "they've been doing restorations. The Catholics had closed it off, before."

"Just this place?" Hedone asked from the doorway.

"No, but, the more...suggestive artifacts and sites were kept off tours. But now, well, it is a curiosity.  The oldest, largest building of its kind that we have."

"Tourism's growing everywhere," Valentine observed, more serious in his tone than I'd often heard. "Are they digging again, in Egypt?"

Alpha looked down, then nodded. "Even the Malik has an interest."

"There are jobs for former soldiers in it," Valentine said in that same tone.

"Come see!" Hedone called from inside.

Erik moved through the doorway.

I glanced up at Alpha, clutching his sketchbook to my chest. He made a slight smile. "Go in and tell me how we learn the function of the structure," Alpha said.

I walked inside, not truly expecting anything in particular. The interior had masonry walls like the other ruins, here and there chipped of their plaster surface. I saw there was no atrium, as in an upperclass villa, just a space with 4 or five doorways; Prim and Valentine blocked part of my view. I saw Hedone was looking up at something above a doorway, but I looked first in through a doorway and saw a small chamber, with a tiny window, and what looked like a built-in bed fashioned from the same stone and plaster as the walls.

I walked directly across the hall, noticing Alpha there watching me, and Murphy loitering in the doorway to the street. The opposite room was near identical. "They're all small rooms with built-in beds," I said, turning back towards Alpha.

I heard Hedone and Erik laughing.

"What else can you see?" Alpha asked.

I stepped fully back into the hall. The walls had faint remainders of frescoes painted into the plaster, but these were worn and covered with graffiti, as a desk or lavatory door at school may be. Then I looked up, as Hedone had been.

The frescoes on the upper parts of the walls were somewhat less worn, yet old and faint enough that I had to really look to make out the picture. I think I must have gasped when I realized what I was seeing. "Oh! My Lady! It's indecent!"

I could not begin to describe what I saw. I had never seen anything quite like it. I'd seen curvaceous statues and prints of Sarasvati, but she'd did nothing more scandalous than sit on the back of a swan. I had looked at Murphy's copy of that picture-novel about the young man who runs away from his monastery school, but its artist had made use of illusory oriental flowers and clouds to conceal certain detail.

The frescoes had some surviving details.

"Jade," Alpha called.

There was more than one. They were on all sides of the room, each different from the other.

"Hand Prim a sheet of paper and the colors."

I shook myself. I looked down to the book held tightly in my hands. I passed the small box first, then leafed open the book to tear a piece of clean paper.

"We only need the one," Alpha was saying, as Prim took the paper.

To the other side of me, Erik and Hedone still studied the risqué paintings. "I like this one," Hedone said, "She looks fierce!"

"Rub it gently," Alpha said, from behind me then.

And nearby Erik said, "I am not certain that one is 'she'."

I was suddenly aware of Alpha standing close beside me. I felt flushed. "Make a copy for me," he said.

"Me? How can I?"

Alpha opened his box of colors. "Draw one of the scenes. You may pick which."

"I can't! It's obscene!"

"It's just paint on plaster, Julien," he said at my ear.

"Don't stand so close," I whispered.

He moved, a little. "If I am with you, I am not making a fool of myself near someone else." He reached across me. I flinched. Alpha tsked his tongue at me. He put his hands to the sketchbook to adjust its position in my arms. "Hold it like this in one arm."

I took a deep breath and held it a moment, like I was back doing breathing exercises for a dive with him. "Yes. Captain."

"That's better." Alpha removed several Conté sticks from his box, then laid them on the the upturned page of sketchpaper: black, white, sanguine, then a yellow ochre and a cobalt. "Now, don't think about what they are doing, just focus on the image. The colors lines and shapes in relation to each other."

"Yes, Captain." I chose the scene that to me seemed the least graphic, although it did portrayed two nude figures on a couch. I by no means considered myself an artist, but I'd secretly envied the snipper-snappers who were trusted to curry portfolios, and made my own amateur doodles to pass time or organize thoughts. Most recently, Alpha had demanded sketches of me during lessons. He had explained the process of breaking complex forms into simpler volumes.

Alpha left me, to translate the rubbing Prim had made of a graffito. He returned to me, later, as I was nearly finished with the copy. I knew some of the lines were shaky. "I was terribly nervous when I took my first figure drawing lesson with a model," he confessed.

"You drew nude models, Alpha?" Hedone asked. I wondered the same.

"I did--"

Erik interrupted, "Of course he did. Had the ladies falling over themselves to pose for him."

"As I was saying, my mother arranged for the lessons. I was so flushed and trembling before the models I could barely hold my charcoal. But, that feeling passed."

"Could you draw me?" Hedone asked.

Erik answered first, "No."

Alpha shook his head. "Perhaps Jade might try. He needs practice."

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Was that the most PG description of characters looking at erotic art? I felt like I was writing actors filming a movie about dinosaurs.

I almost used the My Chemical Romance song for the media, but it just remains as the title.

There's also some old History Channel documentary which you can find on Youtube about the ancient Pompeii industry of you know what, which I obviously watched. So, I realize that in Real Life the site was kinda covered up in the early 20th century, but of course the story is in an alternate history where that gets explained away for purposes of gratuitous blushing and flirty banter.

And, you're welcome, I googled lupanar frescoes to bring you this chapter, only to end up not specifically describing any. ;)