Does a character thinking they are under threat of death make something guro or snuff, even if the threat is purely imagined? (Edit: yes, it does)

[CaryJanJunior]

My sense of symbolism has once more brought me to wonder whether a concept would be allowed, though after my previous issues with TOS I will be discarding it anyway for safety. This did not deter me from feeling like sharing it, though, and maybe getting help figuring out how to keep as much id the symbolism as possible, so here goes:

I have a character, Kasandra. Part of her backstory is that she was a criminal and surrendered herself as a distraction for law enforcement looking for her gang. She was about to be hung at the gallows when the main character's pirate ship entered port and started blasting everything apart, which distracted her executioners and allowed her to escape and leave with the pirate ship.

Much later, during the story, she is aboard a ghost ship which turns out to be more literal than they anticipated.

An important piece of context: in the place they are in, people cannot die. If they would be harmed, it instead feels good. The ghosts are not actual ghosts of dead people, but just incorporeal beings that take the faces of people from their pasts to break their spirits in order to turn them into beings like them.

Anyway, there, they tell her that her sacrifice was in vain (whether it is true or not is not made clear in the story) and made things actively worse for her gang, and convince her to save them from hell by offering herself again (this part is, obviously to the audience, a filthy lie. They are just trying to break her down so that she will submit to them and they can convert her).

Since part of her issues is being overly self sacrificing, she accepts. Part of this is them telling her (again, dubious whether it's actually true) that since the guards had to hunt the gang down due to her distraction, they cut them down on the spot, whereas if they were all captured, they would have all been on the hallows when the ship came in and would have been saved.

And here is the scene that I felt would probably unfortunately go against TOS:

They create an illusory gallows, complete with a noise. They put her on it. Instead of dropping a trap door, however, their plan to 'hang' her is to pleasure her until her legs give out.

She is only saved by the sunrise, which is established to be close at the start of the story and to force the 'ghosts' to go away by it saving another crew member earlier. End scene.

I really like the parallels of her being in a noose and the sunrise saving her similar to how, in her backstory, the arrival of the pirate ship saved her.

The concept of someone being in a noose and someone attempting to off then by making their legs give out from pleasure is obviously snuff/too snuff adjacent to keep, even if the threat isn't technically death nor does it happen, so that has to go.

I do want to keep some sexual element, preferably with the ghosts trying to force her to moan/orgasm/something else pleasure related, since it is a sexfight story in the end, but it will probably have to be before they put her in the noose.

I also liked the idea of having her hold out until sunrise and that being why she doesn't end up converted, but I also wanted to have her be in the noise at sunrise, and am not sure how to have both while, again, avoiding snuff.

 

[kreemi_pi]

I would think no. It seems like that's just describing her mental state, which should be a key part of erotic literature (as opposed to porn).

 

[CaryJanJunior]

I would think no. It seems like that's just describing her mental state, which should be a key part of erotic literature (as opposed to porn).

Is this a response to the title itself, or do you mean you believe that the scene in the noose, as described, would not actually be snuff?

 

[alohadave]

Instead of dropping a trap door, however, their plan to 'hang' her is to pleasure her until her legs give out.

Sexualizing death. Most likely would not be allowed.

 

[CaryJanJunior]

Sexualizing death. Most likely would not be allowed.

Yeah, I ended up having the thought on what exactly the idea I had was while writing the post and basically answered my own question

The concept of someone being in a noose and someone attempting to off then by making their legs give out from pleasure is obviously snuff/too snuff adjacent to keep, even if the threat isn't technically death nor does it happen, so that has to go.

Here.

Still, thank you for bothering to give feedback.

 

[nice90sguy]

I had an erotic strangulation scene in one of my early stories, Annihilation. It got through fine when I first posted it in 2003, and again when I reposted it twenty years later.